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A 



C0e (prime (Nlimekrs of 
Queen QOktoxia 



EDITED BY 

STUART J. REID 




WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 



THE QUEEN'S PRIME MINISTERS 

A SERIES OF POLITICAL BIOGRAPHIES. 

EDITED BY 

AUTHOR OF 'THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SYDNEY SMITH.' 



The volumes contain Photogravure Portraits^ 
also copies of Autographs. 

I. 

THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD, K.G. By J. A. Froude, D.C.L. 
(Fifth Edition.) 

II. 

VISCOUNT MELBOURNE. By Henry Dunckley, LL.D. ('Verax.') 

III. 
SIR ROBERT PEEL. By Justin McCarthy, M.P. 

IV. 

THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. By G. W. E. 

Russell. 

V. 

THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY. By H. D. Traill, D.C.L. 

VI. 

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. By the Marquis of Lorne. 

VII. 
THE EARL OF DERBY. By George Saintsbury. 

VIII. 
LORD JOHN RUSSELL. By Stuart J. Reid. 

IX. 
THE EARL OF ABERDEEN. By Sir Arthur Gordon, G.C.M.G. 



London : 

SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, Limited, 

St. ©unstan's Ifoouse, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 




<z^l. M,??y/s;j^stA^c/- fuyr/^yt jtebkew VU- <Si%C ry/^cf/^As? i SO ■" 



THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 



BY 



GEORGE W, E. RUSSELL 









, His brows, black yet, and white unfallen hair 
Set in strange frame the face of his despair ; 
And I despised not, nor can God despise, 
The silent splendid anger of his eyes. 
A hundred years of search for flying Truth 
Had left them glowing with no gleam of youth ; 
A hundred years of vast and vain desire 
Had lit and filled them with consuming fire ; 
Therethrough I saw his fierce eternal soul 
Gaze from beneath that argent aureole' 

Frederic W. H. Myers 



TWELFTH THOUSAND 





LONDON 
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY 

{LIMITED) 

St. Dunstan's Ifoouse 

FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C. 

1892 

[A II rights reserved 



3 







PRINTED BY 

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 

LONDON 



^ 



^ 



< 



PREFATORY NOTE 



The task of writing this Biography is one for which I should 
certainly not have volunteered. When Mr. Stuart Reid pro- 
posed it to me, I undertook it with reluctance. I pointed 
out that this was one of the cases where personal acquaint- 
ance with the subject of the book was a positive disqualifi- 
cation for the work. I could not consent to embellish my 
pages with traits and incidents which I had observed in the 
sacred intercourse of social life ; and the official relation in 
which I had stood to Mr. Gladstone made it difficult for 
me to sit in judgment on his public acts. These objections 
were overruled ; but it is right to state that Mr. Gladstone 
is in no way or degree responsible for what I have written. 
When, before undertaking the work, I applied to him for 
his sanction, he said that he would put no obstacles in the 
way ; and there his connexion with the matter ends. 

This book aims at little more than a clear statement 
of facts chronologically arranged. The successive events 
of a great man's life, and his own recorded words, have 
been allowed to speak for themselves ; and, where comment 
was required, it has been sought in the writings of con- 
temporary observers. Original criticism has been used as 
sparingly as possible. 

The space at my disposal being strictly limited, I have 
touched lightly on those later events of Mr. Gladstone's 



VI MR. GLADSTONE 

career which are within general recollection, and I have 
bestowed more detailed attention on the early stages, which 
are now, to most people, either unknown or forgotten. 

The books which I have consulted are too numerous 
to be specified : but I am under peculiar obligation to 
Mr. Barnett Smith's 'Life of the Right Hon. William 
Ewart Gladstone ' ; to Mr. Wemyss Reid's ' Life of Lord 
Houghton'; to Mr. Justin McCarthy's 'History of Our 
Own Times ' ; to the ' Life of Bishop Wilberforce ' ; and 
to the ' Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott.' 

My special thanks are due to his Eminence Cardinal 
Manning ; the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells ; the Lord 
Bishop of St. Andrews ; Lord Napier and Ettrick ; the Very 
Rev. the Dean of Christ Church ; the Venerable Arch- 
deacon Denison ; the Hon. Sir Arthur Gordon, G.C.M.G. ; 
the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Acland, Bart. ; Mr. Arthur 
Godley, C.B. ; Mr. Milnes-Gaskell, M.P. ; Mr. E. Hamilton, 
of Charters ; Mr. F. Cornish, of Eton ; and Mr. W. Cory ; 
who have helped me with invaluable recollections, or have 
given me access to interesting records. 

To this list must be added, with regretful respect, the 
name of the late Dean of St. Paul's. 

Here and there I have borrowed from previous writings 
of my own ; and I have done so on the ground that, when 
a writer has carefully chosen certain words to express his 
meaning, he can seldom alter them with advantage. 

For the admirable portrait which forms the frontispiece 
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Rupert Potter, whose 
skill in photography requires no praise from me. 

G. W. E. R. 

June I, 1891. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Birth, parentage, and education I 



CHAPTER II 

Enters Parliament — Early speeches — Office — Opposition . . 26 

CHAPTER III 

Religious opinions — Book on Church and State — Marriage — 
Becomes Vice-President of the Board of Trade — Admitted to 
the Cabinet — Resigns ........ 53 

CHAPTER IV 

Free Trade— The Repeal of the Corn Laws— Retires from the re- 
presentation of Newark — Returned for the University of Oxford 
— Growth and transition— Loss of a child— The Gorham judg- 
ment— Secession of friends 79 



Vlll MR. GLADSTONE 



CHAPTER V 

PAGE 

Don Pacifico — Civis Romanus — The Neapolitan prisons— The 
Papal aggression — Triumph over Mr. Disraeli — The Coalition 
Government — Chancellor of the Exchequer — First Budget . 101 



CHAPTER VI 

The Crimean War — Resignation — Ecclesiastical troubles— A free 
lance — The ' Arrow ' — The Divorce Bill — Opposition to Lord 
Palmerston — Declines to join Tory Government — Lord High 
Commissioner to the Ionian Islands — Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer in Whig Government — The French Treaty and the 
Paper Duties — Conflict with the House of Lords — Opinion on 
the American War . . . . . . . .123 

CHAPTER VII 

Growth in Liberal principles — The General Election of 1865 — 
Defeated at Oxford — Returned for South Lancashire — The Death 
of Lord Palmerston — Leader of the House of Commons — The 
Reform Bill — The Cave of Adullam — Defeat and resignation . 155 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Tory Reform Bill — Liberal mutiny — Triumphant Opposition- 
Proposes to disestablish the Irish Church — The General Election 
of 1868 — Defeated in South-west Lancashire — Returned for 
Greenwich — Liberal majority — Prime Minister — The Disestab- 
lishment of the Irish Church . . . . . . .189 

CHAPTER IX 

The Irish Land Act — The abolition of Purchase — The ' Alabama ' 
claims — Disaffection at Greenwich — Waning popularity — Dis- 
solution — Defeat — Resignation — Retirement from leadership — 
Theological controversy . . . . . . .211 



CONTENTS IX 



CHAPTER X 

PAGE. 



The Eastern Question — The Midlothian campaign — The General 
Election of 1880 — Liberal triumph — Prime Minister a second 
time — Ireland and Egypt — Defeat and resignation — The 
General Election of 1885 — Home Rule — Prime Minister a third 
time — The Home Rule Bill defeated — The General Election of 
1886— Resignation — Leadership of Opposition— Golden wed- 
ding — Life at Hawarden . . . . . . .242 



CHAPTER XI 

Analysis of Character — Religiousness — Attitude towards Noncon- 
formity — Love of power — Political courage — Conservative in- 
stincts — Love of beauty — Literary tastes — Mastery of finance — 
Business-like aptitude — Temper — Courtesy — Attractiveness in 
private life ...... ... 265: 



Index . . 283, 



MR. GLADSTONE 

CHAPTER I 

Birth, parentage, and education. 

William Ewart Gladstone was born on December 29, 
1809. His birthplace was No. 62 Rodney Street, Liverpool ; 
but for his ancestry we must look further north than Lan- 
cashire. 

The parish of Libberton lies near the town of Biggar, 
in the upper ward of Lanarkshire, and here, from very 
early times, a family of Gledstanes owned a property from 
which they took their name. They were Gledstanes of 
Gledstanes, or, in Scottish phrase, Gledstanes of that Ilk. 
The derivation of the name is obvious enough to anyone 
who has seen the spot. Agled is a hawk, and that fierce and 
beautiful bird would have found its natural home among 
the stanes, or rocks, of the craggy moorlands which surround 
the fortalice of Gledstanes. As far back as 1296, Herbert 
de Gledestane figures in the Ragman Roll as one of the 
lairds who swore fealty to Edward I. His descendants for 
generations held knightly rank, and bore their part in the 
adventurous life of the Border. As years went on their 
estates dwindled, and their social standing underwent a 

B 



2 MR. GLADSTONE 

change. By the beginning of the seventeenth century the 
estate of Gledstanes was sold. The adjacent property of 
Arthurshiel remained in the hands of the family for nearly 
a hundred years longer. Then the son of the last Gledstanes 
of Arthurshiel removed to the neighbouring town of Biggar, 
and opened the business of a maltster there. 

His grandson, Thomas Gladstones (for so the name was 
modified), became a corn-merchant at Leith. It chanced 
that, in pursuit of his business, this Mr. Thomas Gladstones 
had occasion to sell a cargo of grain which had arrived at 
Liverpool, and he sent his eldest son, John, to transact the 
sale at the port. John Gladstone's energy and aptitude 
attracted the favourable notice of a leading corn-merchant 
of Liverpool, on whose recommendation the young man 
settled in that city. He began his commercial career as a 
clerk in his patron's house. He lived to become one of the 
merchant-princes of Liverpool, a baronet, and a member of 
Parliament. He died in 185 1, at the age of eighty-seven. 
He seems to have been a man of unbending will, of inex- 
haustible energy, of absolute self-reliance ; a stern, strong, 
imperious nature, pre-eminent in all those qualities which 
overcome obstacles, conquer fortune, and command the 
respect of the world. 

Sir John Gladstone was a pure Scotchman, a Lowlander by 
birth and descent. He married Anne, daughter of Andrew 
Robertson, of Stornoway, sometime Provost of Dingwall. 
Provost Robertson belonged to the Clan Donachie, and by 
this marriage the robust and business-like qualities of the 
Lowlander were blended with the poetic imagination, the sen- 
sibility and fire of the Gael. John and Anne Gladstone had 
six children. The fourth son — William Ewart — was named 
after a merchant of Liverpool who was his father's friend. 



THE STATE OF ENGLAND 3 

He was born at a critical moment in the fortunes of 
England and of Europe. Abroad, the greatest genius 
that the world has ever seen was wading through slaughter 
to a universal throne, and no effectual resistance had as yet 
been offered to a progress which menaced the liberty of 
Europe and the existence of its States. At home, a crazy 
king and a profligate heir-apparent presided over a social 
system in which all civil evils were harmoniously combined. 
A despotic Administration was supported by a parliamentary 
representation as corrupt as illusory ; a Church, in which 
spiritual religion was all but extinct, had sold herself as a 
bondslave to the governing classes. Rank and wealth and 
territorial ascendency were divorced from public duty, and 
even learning had become the handmaid of tyranny. The 
sacred name of justice was prostituted to sanction a system 
of legal murder. Commercial enterprise was paralyzed by 
prohibitive legislation ; public credit was shaken to its base ; 
the prime necessaries of life were ruinously dear. The 
pangs of poverty were aggravated by the concurrent evils of 
war and famine, and the common people, fast bound in 
misery and iron, were powerless to make their sufferings 
known or to seek redress, except by the desperate methods 
of conspiracy and insurrection. None of the elements of 
revolution were wanting, and the fates seemed to be hurry- 
ing England to the brink of a civil catastrophe. 

The general sense of insecurity and apprehension, in- 
separable from such a condition of affairs, produced its 
effect upon even the robustest minds. Sir John Gladstone 
was not a likely victim of panic, but he was a man with 
a large stake in the country, the more precious because 
acquired by his own exertion : he believed that the safe- 
guards of property and order were imperilled by foreign 

b 2 



4 MR. GLADSTONE 

arms and domestic sedition ; and he had seen with in- 
dignation and disgust the excesses of a factious Whiggery 
which was not ashamed to exult in the triumph of the 
French over the English Government. Under the pressure 
of these influences, Sir John Gladstone gradually separated 
himself from the Whigs, with whom in earlier life he had 
acted, and became a close ally of Canning, whose return 
for Liverpool he actively promoted. A deep and lasting 
friendship grew up between the statesman-adventurer and 
his merchant-ally. The fascination of genius exercised 
its inevitable spell, and the enlightened and gracious 
Toryism which Canning taught became his friend's political 

gospel. 

Sir Jchn Gladstone was a man whose opinions could 
hardly fail to produce their effect upon those with whom he 
lived, and over whom he exercised a patriarchal authority. 
In the penetrating gaze, the strongly-marked features, the 
compressed and resolute mouth, which the skilful brush of 
the ill-fated William Bradley has perpetuated, it is easy to 
read the signs of a temper which brooked no resistance. 
In the town of Liverpool his political influence, backed by 
his wealth and station, was widely felt, and in his own home 
it probably was irresistible. His son has thus described him : 

' His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated ; he 
was full of bodily and mental vigour ; " whatsoever his hand 
found to do, he did it with his might ; " he could not under- 
stand or tolerate those who, perceiving an object to be good, 
did not at once and actively pursue it ; and with all this 
energy he joined a corresponding warmth and, so to speak, 
eagerness of affection, a keen appreciation of humour, in 
which he found a rest, and an indescribable frankness and 
simplicity of character, which, crowning his other qualities, 



SIR JOHN GLADSTONE 5 

made him, I think (and I strive to think impartially), nearly 
or quite the most interesting old man I have ever known.' 

It was his habit to discuss all manner of questions with 
his children, and an eye-witness has observed that ' nothing 
was ever taken for granted between him and his sons. A 
succession of arguments on great topics and small topics 
alike — arguments conducted with perfect good humour, but 
also with the most implacable logic — formed the staple of 
the family conversation. The children and their parents 
argued upon everything. . . . They would debate as to 
whether the trout should be boiled or broiled, whether a 
window should be opened, and whether it was likely to be 
fine or wet next day. It was all perfectly good-humoured, 
but curious to a stranger because of the evident care which 
all the disputants took to advance no proposition, even as 
to the prospect of rain, rashly.' 

Sir John Gladstone's house was, by all accounts, a home 
pre-eminently calculated to mould the thoughts and direct 
the course of an intelligent and receptive nature. There 
was the father's masterful will and keen perception, the 
sweetness and piety of the mother, wealth with all its sub- 
stantial advantages and few of its mischiefs, a strong sense 
of the value of money, a rigid avoidance of extravagance 
and excess ; everywhere a strenuous purpose in life, constant 
employment, and concentrated ambition. 

After some tuition at the Vicarage of Seaforth, a 
watering-place near Liverpool, William Gladstone left home 
for Eton. From a provincial town, from mercantile sur- 
roundings, from an atmosphere of money-making, from a 
strictly-regulated life, the impressionable boy was trans- 
planted, at the age of eleven, to the shadow of Windsor 
and the banks of the Thames, to an institution which 



6 MR. GLADSTONE 

belongs to history, to scenes haunted by the memory of 
the most illustrious Englishmen, to a free and independent 
existence among companions who were the very flower 
of English boyhood. A transition so violent and yet so 
delightful was bound to produce an impression which lapse 
of time was powerless to efface, and no one who knows 
the man and the school can wonder that for seventy 
years Mr. Gladstone has been the most enthusiastic of 
Etonians. 

He entered Eton after the summer holidays of 182 1, 
under the Head-Mastership of the terrific Dr. Keate. To 
quote the emphatic testimony of Sir Roderick Murchison, 
he was then ' the prettiest little boy that ever went to 
Eton.' He boarded at Mrs. Shurey's, a house at the 
south end of the broad walk in front of the schools and 
facing the chapel, and rather nearer the famous ' Christopher 
Inn ' than would nowadays be thought desirable. On the 
wall opposite the house, the name of ' Gladstone,' carved, 
it is believed, by the statesman's own hand, may still be 
traced. His tutor was the Rev. Henry Hartopp Knapp. 
His brothers, Thomas and Robertson Gladstone, were 
already at Eton, and boarded in Mrs. Shurey's house. 
Thomas was in the Fifth Form, and William, who was 
placed in the middle remove of the Fourth Form, became 
his eldest brother's fag. 

A famous line in Lord Lytton's ' New Timon ' has 
recorded the fact that Mr. Gladstone was what Etonians, 
with classical elegance, designate a ' sap.' In other words, 
he was not ashamed to fulfil the purpose for which boys 
are, at any rate in theory, sent to school. He worked 
hard at his classical lessons, and supplemented the ordinary 
business of the school by studying mathematics in the 



SCHOOL-DAYS AT ETON 7 

holidays. His interest in work was first aroused by Mr. 
Hawtrey, afterwards Head Master, who commended a copy 
of his Latin verses, and ' sent him up for good.' This 
experience first led the young student to associate in- 
tellectual work with the ideas of ambition and success. 
He was not a fine scholar, in that restricted sense of the 
term which implies a special aptitude for turning English into 
Greek and Latin or for original versification in the classical 
languages. 'His composition,' we read, 'was stiff,' but he 
was imbued with the substance of his authors ; and a con- 
temporary who was in the Sixth Form with him remarks 
that ' when there were thrilling passages of Virgil or Homer, 
or difficult passages in the " Scriptores Grseci " to translate, 
he or Lord Arthur Hervey was generally called up to edify 
the class with quotation or translation.' 

By common consent, he was pre-eminently God-fearing, 
orderly, and conscientious. 'At Eton,' said Bishop Hamil- 
ton, of Salisbury, ' I was a thoroughly idle boy ; but I 
was saved from some worse things by getting to know 
Gladstone.' To have exercised, while still a schoolboy, an 
influence for good on one of the greatest of contemporary 
saints is surely such a distinction as few Prime Ministers 
ever attained. Sixty years afterwards a schoolfellow re- 
membered seeing William Gladstone turn his glass upside 
down and decline to drink a coarse toast proposed, according 
to annual custom, at an election-dinner at the ' Christopher.' 
He was not only pure-minded and courageous, but humane. 
He stood forth as the champion of some wretched pigs, 
which it was the custom to torture at Eton Fair on Ash 
Wednesday, and, when bantered by his schoolfellows for his 
humanity, offered to write his reply ' in good round hand 
upon their faces.' 



8 MR. GLADSTONE 

His most intimate friend was Arthur Hallam, by 
universal acknowledgment the most remarkable Etonian 
of his day ; in mind and character not unworthy of the 
magnificent eulogy of ' In Memoriam.' Although they 
boarded in different houses, Gladstone and Hallam always 
breakfasted together, and, when separated by the holidays, 
corresponded diligently with one another. On August 23, 
1826, Hallam wrote to a common friend: 'I heard from 
Gladstone shortly after your letter reached me — a long and 
very orderly epistle, as you may suppose, full of lamentations 
about Liverpool, the country and the Ministry, and of 
high-flying eulogiums on Walter Scott's "Woodstock." ' 

Among their schoolfellows were John Hanmer, after- 
wards Lord Hanmer ; James Col vile, Chief Justice at Cal- 
cutta ; Frederic Rogers, Lord Blachford ; Spencer Walpole, 
Home Secretary in the days of the Reform League ; 
Gerald Wellesley, Dean of Windsor ; Frederick Tennyson ; 
George Cornewall Lewis ; William Cavendish, Duke of 
Devonshire ; Lord Arthur Hervey, Bishop of Bath and 
Wells ; William Selwyn ; George Selwyn, Bishop of New 
Zealand and of Lichfield ; Alexander Kinglake ; Sir 
Francis Doyle ; Henry Denison ; James Milnes-Gaskell, 
M.P. for Wenlock ; James Bruce, afterwards Lord Elgin ; 
James Hope, afterwards Hope- Scott ; Charles Canning, 
Lord Canning and Governor- General of India ; Walter 
Hamilton, Bishop of Salisbury ; and his brother, Edward 
Hamilton, of Charters. 

Young Gladstone took no delight in games. One of 
his contemporaries often declared, 'without challenge or 
contradiction, that he was never seen to run ' ; but he was 
fond of sculling, and kept a ' lock-up,' or private boat, for 
bis own use. He walked fast and far ; and his*chief amuse- 



THE ETON SOCIETY 9 

ment, when he was not debating or reading or writing, was 
to roam about the delightful neighbourhood of Windsor in 
the congenial company of a few like-minded friends. One 
of these, James Milnes-Gaskell, writing to his mother on 
June 30, 1826, says : ' I was out all yesterday evening with 
Gladstone, who is one of the cleverest and most sensible 
people I ever met with ' — odd praise in a schoolboy's mouth. 
At the end of 1827, Charles Canning writes: 'Handley, 
Gladstone, Mr. Bruce, Lord Bruce, Hodgson, and myself, 
set up a Salt Hill Club at the end of the half. We met 
every whole holiday or half, as was convenient, after twelve, 
and went up to Salt Hill to bully the fat waiter, eat toasted 
cheese, and drink egg-wine.' It is startling to learn, on the 
same unimpeachable authority, that ' in all our meetings, as 
well as at almost every time, Gladstone went by the name 
of Mr. Tipple.' 

But beyond this intimate circle Gladstone was not 
generally popular or even widely known. He was seen to 
the greatest advantage, and was most thoroughly at home, 
in the debates of the Eton Society, learnedly called ' The 
Literati ' and vulgarly ' Pop,' and in the editorship of the 
' Eton Miscellany.' The Eton Society in Gladstone's day 
was a remarkable group of brilliant boys. Its meetings 
were held over Miss Hatton's ' sock-shop.' Its tone was 
intensely Tory. Current politics were forbidden subjects, 
but political opinion disclosed itself through the thin dis- 
guise of historical or academical questions. The execution 
of Strafford and Charles I., the characters of Oliver Crom- 
well and Milton, the ' Contrat Social ' of Rousseau, and the 
events of the French Revolution, laid bare the speakers' 
political tendencies as effectually as if the conduct of Queen 
Caroline, the foreign policy of Lord Castlereagh, or the 



10 MR. GLADSTONE 

repeal of the Test and Corporation Act, had been the sub- 
ject of debate. Gladstone was elected a member of the 
Society on October 15, 1825. On the 29th of the same 
month he made his maiden speech on the question, ' Is the 
education of the poor on the whole beneficial?' The 
contemporary scribe records that ' Mr. Gladstone rose and 
eloquently addressed the House ' in favour of education ; 
and one who heard him says that his opening words were, 
'Sir, in this age of increased and increasing civilization.' 
It almost oppresses the imagination to picture the shoreless 
sea of eloquence which rolls between that exordium and 
the oratory to which we still are listening, and hope to listen 
for years to come. 

During the remainder of his time at Eton, Gladstone 
took a leading part both in the debates and in the 
private business of the Society. We find him intro- 
ducing promising members, agitating for more readable 
and instructive newspapers, proposing rules calculated to 
ensure orderly and decorous conduct, moving fines on 
those guilty of disorder or breaches of rule, and himself 
the subject of a fine for putting down an illegal question. 
In debate he champions the claims of metaphysics against 
those of mathematics, and defends aristocracy against demo- 
cracy. He confesses 'innate feelings of dislike to the 
French.' He protests against the disarmament of the High- 
landers as 'in the name of policy inexpedient, in the 
name of God unjust.' In a debate on the fate of Strafford 
he deplores the action of the House of Commons, which 
we ought to be able to ' revere as our glory and confide in 
as our protection.' The peroration of his speech on the 
question whether Queen Anne's Ministers, in the last four 
years of her reign, deserved well of their country, is so 



SPEECHES AT ETON II 

characteristic, both in substance and in form, that it de- 
serves reproduction here : 

Thus much, Sir, I have said, as conceiving myself bound 
in fairness not to regard the names under which men have 
hidden their designs so much as the designs themselves. I am 
well aware that my prejudices and my predilections have long 
been enlisted on the side of Toryism — (cheers) — and that in a 
cause like this I am not likely to be influenced unfairly against 
men bearing that name and professing to act on the principles 
which I have always been accustomed to revere. But the good 
of my country must stand on a higher ground than distinctions 
like these.- In common fairness and in common candour, I feel 
myself compelled to give my decisive verdict against the con- 
duct of men whose measures I firmly believe to have been 
hostile to British interests, destructive of British glory, and 
subversive of the splendid and, I trust, lasting fabric of the 
British Constitution. 

The following extracts are from the diary of William 
Cowper, afterwards Lord Mount-Temple. On Saturday, 
October 27, 1827, the subject for debate was — 

'Whether the deposition of Richard II. was justifiable or 
not.' J elf opened : not a good speech. DoyJe spoke extem- 
pore, made several mistakes, which were corrected by Jelf. 
Gladstone spoke well. The Whigs were regularly floored ; only 
four Whigs to eleven Tories, but they very nearly kept up with 
them in coughing and ' Hear, hears. 5 Adjourned to Monday, 
after 4. 

Monday,' 2g. — Gladstone finished his speech, and ended 
with a great deal of flattery of Doyle, saying that he was sure 
he would have courage enough to own that he was wrong. It 
succeeded. Doyle rose amidst reiterated cheers to own that he 
was convinced by the arguments of the other side. He had 
determined before to answer them and cut up Gladstone ! 

December 1. — Debate, 'Whether the Peerage Bill of 1719 
was calculated to be beneficial or not.' Thanks voted to Doyle 



12 MR. GLADSTONE 

and Gladstone ; the latter spoke very well : will be a great 
loss to the Society. 

The foregoing extracts indicate pretty clearly the political 
colour of the young orator's opinions. It is further illustrated 
by the following anecdote of Sir Francis Doyle's : ' One day 
I was steadily computing the odds for the Derby, as they 
stood in a morning newspaper. He (Mr. Gladstone) leant 
over my shoulder to look at the lot of horses named. Now 
it happened that the Duke of Grafton owned a colt called 
Hampden, who figured in the aforesaid lot. " Well," cried 
Mr. Gladstone, reading off the odds, "Hampden, at any 
rate, I see, is in his proper place, between Zeal and Lunacy" 
for such, in truth, was the position occupied by the four- 
footed namesake of that illustrious rebel.' 

In 1827 Gladstone took part in launching the 'Eton 
Miscellany.' Under the pseudonym of ' Bartholomew 
Bouverie,' he was at once the editor and the most copious 
contributor. The first number appeared on June 4, 
1827, and the magazine lived till the following December, 
which, as school journalism goes, must be considered an 
instance of longevity. Among the principal contributors 
were James Colvile, Francis Doyle, James Milnes-Gaskell, 
Arthur Hallam, John Hanmer, and George Selwyn. Glad- 
stone turned his hand to every kind of authorship. He 
wrote prologues, epilogues, leading articles, historical 
essays, satirical sketches, classical translations, and humorous 
poetry. His tribute to the memory of Mr. Canning, in a 
paper on ' Ancient and Modern Genius Compared,' is full 
of feeling and even exuberantly rhetorical. 

It is for those who revered him in the plenitude of his 
meridian glory to mourn over him in the darkness of his pre* 



THE 'ETON MISCELLANY' 13 

mature extinction : to mourn over the hopes that are buried in 
his grave, and the evils that arise from his withdrawing from 
the scene of life. Surely if eloquence never excelled and seldom 
equalled — if an expanded mind and judgment whose vigour was 
paralleled only by its soundness — if brilliant wit — if a glowing 
imagination — if a warm heart, and an unbending firmness — 
could have strengthened the frail tenure, and prolonged the 
momentary duration of human existence, that man had been 
immortal ! But nature could endure no longer. Thus has 
Providence ordained that inasmuch as the intellect is more 
brilliant, it shall be more short-lived ; as its sphere is more 
expanded, more swiftly is it summoned away. Lest we should 
give to man the honour due to God — lest we should exalt the 
object of our admiration into a divinity for our worship— He 
who calls the weary and the mourner to eternal rest hath been 
pleased to remove him from our eyes. 

As a sample of his humorous style we take these lines 
from his mock-heroic ' Ode to the Shade of Wat Tyler ' : 

Shade of him whose valiant tongue 
On high the song of freedom sung ; 
Shade of him, whose mighty soul 
Would pay no taxes on his poll ; 
Though, swift as lightning, civic sword 

Descended on thy fated head, 
The blood of England's boldest poured, 

And numbered Tyler with the dead ! 



Still may thy spirit flap its wings 
At midnight o'er the couch of kings ; 
And peer and prelate tremble, too, 
In dread of nightly interview ! 
With patriot gesture of command, 

With eyes that like thy forges gleam, 
Lest Tyler's voice and Tyler's hand 

Be heard and seen in nightly dream. 



14 MR. GLADSTONE 

I hymn the gallant and the good 
From Tyler down to Thistlewood, 
My muse the trophies grateful sings, 
The deeds of Miller and of Ings ; 
She sings of all who, soon or late, 

Have burst Subjection's iron chain, 
Have seal'd the bloody despot's fate 

Or cleft a peer or priest in twain. 

Shades, that soft Sedition woo, 
Around the haunts of Peterloo ! 
That hover o'er the meeting-halls, 
Where many a voice stentorian bawls ! 
Still flit the sacred choir around, 

With ' Freedom ' let the garrets ring, 
And vengeance soon in thunder sound 

On Church, and constable, and king. 

Will it be credited that a Tory critic, anxious to prove 
that the Liberal leader was a revolutionist from his cradle, 
has gravely cited this ode as a serious effusion of youthful 
Radicalism ? 

Sir Francis Doyle writes : c Hallam, Selwyn, and the 
other contributors left Eton at Midsummer (or Election, as 
we used to call it), 1827. Mr. Gladstone and I remained 
behind as its chief supporters, or rather it would be more 
like the truth if I said that Mr. Gladstone supported the 
whole burden upon his own shoulders. I was unpunctual 
and unmethodical, so also were his other vassals ; and the 
" Miscellany " would have fallen to the ground but for Mr. 
Gladstone's untiring energy, pertinacity, and tact. I may 
as well remark that my father, a man of great ability as well 
as of great experience of life, predicted Gladstone's future 
eminence from the manner in which he handled this some- 
what tiresome business, "It is not," he remarked, "that I 



ARTHUR IIALLAM'S PREDICTION I 5 

think his papers better than yours or Hallam's — that is not 
my meaning at all ; but the force of character he has shown 
in managing his subordinates, and the combination of 
ability and power that he has made evident, convince me 
that such a young man cannot fail to distinguish himself 
hereafter." ' 

The impression which he made upon those of his 
schoolfellows who were brought into contact with him may 
be gathered from one or two quotations from contemporaries, 
themselves of no common promise. James Milnes-Gaskell, 
urging his wish to go to Oxford instead of Cambridge, 
which his mother had preferred, gives as one of the 
reasons for his choice that it would allow of his continued 
intimacy with Gladstone : ' Gladstone is no ordinary indi- 
vidual ; and, perhaps, if I were called on to select the indi- 
vidual I am intimate with to whom I should first turn in an 
emergency, and whom I thought in every way pre-eminently 
distinguished for high excellence, I think I should turn to 
Gladstone. ... If you finally decide in favour of Cam- 
bridge, my separation from Gladstone will be a source of 
great sorrow to me.' 

Arthur Hallam says : ' Whatever may be our lot, I 
am confident that he is a bud that will bloom with a richer 
fragrance than almost any whose early promise I have wit- 
nessed.' 

Gladstone left Eton at Christmas, 1827. He read for 
six months with private tutors, one of whom was Dr. 
Turner, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta. With reference to 
this part of his life, he wrote : 

1 1 resided with Dr. Turner at Wilmslow (in Cheshire) 
from January till a few months later. My residence with him 
was cut off by his appointment to the Bishopric of Calcutta. 



\6 Mk. GLADSTONE 

. . . My companions were the present (1877) Bishop of 
Sodor and Man, and Sir C. A.Wood, Deputy-Chairman of the 
G. W. Railway. We employed our spare time in gymnastics, 
in turning, and in rambles. I remember paying a visit to 
Macclesfield. In a silk factory the owner showed us his silk 
handkerchiefs, and complained much of Mr. Huskisson for 
having removed the prohibition of the foreign article. The 
thought passed through my mind at the time : Why make 
laws to enable people to produce articles of such hideous 
pattern and indifferent quality as this ? Alderley Edge 
was a favourite place of resort. We dined with Sir John 
Stanley (at Alderley) on the day when the King's Speech 
was received ; and I recollect that he ridiculed (I think 
very justly) the epithet untoward, which was applied in it 
to the Battle of Navarino.' 

In October 1828, Gladstone went up to Christ Church, 
where, in the following year, he was nominated to a Student- 
ship. The House was then in its days of glory. The Dean 
was Dr. Samuel Smith, shortly after succeeded by Dr. Gais- 
ford. The Rev. T. Vowler Short, afterwards Bishop of St. 
Asaph, and the Rev. Daniel Veysie were the Censors. 
Among Gladstone's contemporaries were Charles Canning ; 
Lord Lincoln, afterwards Duke of Newcastle ; Lord Aber- 
corn ; Lord Douglas, afterwards Duke of Hamilton ; Lord 
Ossulston, afterwards Lord Tankerville ; Charles Baring, 
Bishop of Durham ; Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. 
Andrews ; Benjamin Harrison, Archdeacon of Maidstone ; 
Joseph Anstice, Professor of Greek and Latin at King's Col- 
lege ; Walter Hamilton ; Thomas Acland and his brother, 
Arthur Acland-Troyte : Henry Ker Seymer, M.P. for 
Dorset ; Henry Denison, whose career of promise was cut 
short by an accident in Australia, and his brother Stephen ; 



CHRIST CHURCH \J 

Robert Phillimore ; Francis Doyle ; James Bruce \ Henry 
George Liddell, Dean of Christ Church ; Robert Scott, 
Dean of Rochester ; and Henry Halford Vaughan, Regius 
Professor of Modern History. 

Among the conspicuous undergraduates at other 
colleges, were Henry Edward Manning, afterwards Cardinal 
Archbishop ; Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of 
Canterbury ; Sidney Herbert ; Robert Lowe, Lord Sher- 
brooke ; and Roundell Palmer, Lord Selborne. 

In December 1829, a deputation from the Union at 
Cambridge paid a visit to Oxford, and took part in a great 
debate on the respective merits of Byron and Shelley. One 
of the orators from Cambridge was Richard Monckton 
Milnes, afterwards Lord Houghton, and in a letter of 
December 5, 1829, describing his visit to Oxford, he says : 
1 The man that took me most was the youngest Gladstone 
of Liverpool — I am sure, a very superior person.' 

Gladstone's first rooms were in the ' old library,' near 
the hall ; but for the greater part of his time he occu- 
pied the right-hand rooms on the first floor of the first 
staircase on the right as the visitor enters Canterbury Gate. 
He was, alike in study and in conduct, a model under- 
graduate, and the great influence of his character and talents 
was used with manly resolution against the riotous conduct 
of the ' Tufts,' whose brutality caused the death of one of 
their number in 1831. We read this note in the corre- 
spondence of a friend : ' I heard from Gladstone yesterday ; 
he says that the number of Gentlemen Commoners has 
increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.' 
Everyone who has experienced the hubristic qualities of 
the Tufted race, and its satellites, will cordially sympathize 
with this sentiment of an orderly and industrious under- 

c 



1 8 MR. GLADSTONE 

graduate. He was conspicuously moderate in the use of 
wine. His good example in this respect affected not only 
his contemporaries but also his successors at the Univer- 
sity ; men who followed him to Oxford ten years later found 
it still operative, and declare that undergraduates drank less 
in the forties, because Gladstone had been courageously 
abstemious in the thirties. 

The course of study necessary at this time for classical 
honours was comprehensive, and the method of examina- 
tion searching. A man who aimed at a first-class would 
'take in' a list comprising from twelve to twenty books, 
which he was supposed to have mastered very completely, 
so as to be prepared to bear a pretty close examination 
in their subjects and language. These might be Homer, 
yEschylus, Sophocles, part of Aristophanes, Herodotus, 
Thucydides, perhaps Polybius, Virgil, Horace, perhaps 
Lucretius, portions of Livy and Tacitus, Aristotle's Ethics, 
Politics, and Rhetoric, perhaps the Republic of Plato or two 
of the shorter dialogues, and Butler's Analogy or Sermons. 
The actual examination on paper would be something of 
this kind. First day, Logic ; and translation from English 
into Latin. Second, English Essay ; translation from Greek 
into English. Third, Latin Essay ; translation from English 
into Greek. Fourth, questions on Aristotle and Plato ; 
Greek History, text, substance, critical questions. Fifth, 
questions on Butler and Ethics ; Latin History. Then came 
the viva voce by one after another of the four examiners, 
who i heckled ' the candidate as much as they thought 
fit in all his books and subjects. This, with good examiners 
and good candidates, was a very interesting process, as 
minute knowledge, as well as intelligence and general views, 
came into play. The Divinity came in at the viva 'voce. 



READING FOR HONOURS 19 

The candidate was supposed to be at home in the Four 
Gospels ; he ought to know something of St. Paul, and he 
was expected to have a close knowledge of the language 
and general meaning of the Thirty-nine Articles. If he ' took 
in ' Butler, questions might arise out of that. Metaphysic 
was not formally recognized ; but he might in his Logic 
expect questions from Aristotle's Organon, and other philo- 
sophical treatises ; and his study of Logic was supposed to 
have given him some acquaintance with such subjects. 
The examination was designed to try, not a man's general 
cleverness or even knowledge, but his power of mastering 
books intelligently and usefully ; to test the way in which 
he had employed himself in reading during his three years 
at Oxford. Many brilliant men failed in it for want of 
knowledge ; but it was also a trial of a man's intellectual 
power generally, as well as of his observation and memory. 
It was meant to enforce thoroughness of work, not to give 
honour to cleverness. 

Not content with the intellectual exertion which this 
examination involved, Gladstone also read for mathe- 
matical honours. It is said that he read steadily, but, till 
he neared his final schools, not laboriously. Nothing was 
ever allowed to interfere with his morning's work. He 
read for four hours, then he took a constitutional walk, 
and though not averse to hospitality in the way of suppers 
and wine-parties, he always read for two or three hours 
before bed-time. His tutor was the Rev. Robert Biscoe, 
whose lectures on Aristotle attracted some of the best men 
in the University; and he also .attended the lectures of 
Dr. Burton on Divinity and of Dr. Pusey on Hebrew. 
He read classics privately with Mr., afterwards Bishop, 
Wordsworth. The Long Vacation of 1830 he spent with a 

c 2 



20 MR. GLADSTONE 

small reading-party at Cuddesdon Vicarage. ' It is curious,' 
writes a contemporary, 'to remember reading Plato with 
Bruce, seeing Manning hard at work getting up the text of 
the Bible so as to command great facility in applying it, 
Gladstone working at Hooker, whilst Hamilton was more 
inclined, I think, to indulge in Aristophanes.' 

Gladstone's chosen friends and associates were all in- 
dustrious and steady men ; not a few of them more dis- 
tinctly religious than is, or was, common in undergraduate 
life. A more secularly-minded friend, writing in 1829, notes 
his regret that ' Gladstone has mixed himself up as much 
as he has done with the St. Mary Hall and Oriel set, 
who are really, for the most part, only fit to live with maiden 
aunts and keep tame rabbits.' 

He founded and presided over an Essay-Society, called 
after him the WEG. The following were the original 
members : T. D. Acland, J. Anstice, J. B. Coll, F. Coll, 
F. H. Doyle, J. M. Gaskell, W. E. Gladstone, B. Harrison, 
J. T. Leader, H. Moncrieff, F. Rogers, and H. Ker 
Seymer. 

The following members joined later: J.Bruce, F. Bruce, 
T. Egerton, H. G. Liddell, Lord Lincoln, F. D. Maurice, 
N. Oxnam, C. Thornton, H. H. Vaughan, and C. Marriott. 
During the latter part of his undergraduate career, he 
took a brief but brilliant share in the proceedings of the 
Union, of which he was successively Secretary and Presi- 
dent. He made his maiden speech on February n, 1830. 
Brought up in the nurture and admonition of Canning, 
whose fascinating eloquence he had heard at Liverpool and 
in the House of Commons, and whose society he had enjoyed 
at Eton, he was true to his great master's teaching. He 
defended Catholic emancipation, and thought the Duke of 




AN ORATION AGAINST REFORM 21 

Wellington's Government unworthy of national confidence. 
He opposed the removal of Jewish disabilities, arguing, we 
are told by a contemporary, { on the part of the Evangelicals,' 
and pleaded for the gradual extinction, in preference to the 
immediate abolition, of slavery. But his great achievement 
was his speech against the Whig Reform Bill. In April 
1831, Arthur Hallam writes : ' I have had a long letter from 
Gladstone ; he is very bitter against the Reform Bill ; ' and 
when he came to deliver his sentiments in debate, his 
genuine indignation raised him to an unusual pitch of elo- 
quence. He denounced the Bill as destined to change our 
form of government, and to break up the foundations 
of social order. One who heard this famous discourse 
says that it ' converted Alston, the son of the member 
for Hertford, who immediately on the conclusion 
of Gladstone's speech walked across from the Whig 
to the Tory side of the House, amidst loud acclama- 
tions.' 

Another who heard it says : ' Most of the speakers rose, 
more or less, above their usual level, but when Mr. Glad- 
stone sat down we all of us felt that an epoch in our lives 
had occurred. It certainly was the finest speech of his 
that I ever heard.' Bishop Charles Wordsworth said that 
his experience of Mr. Gladstone at this time ' made me 
(and, I doubt not, others also) feel no less sure than of my 
own existence that Gladstone, our then Christ Church 
undergraduate, would one day rise to be Prime Minister of 
England.' 

In December 1831, Gladstone crowned his career by 
taking a double first-class. Lord Halifax used to say, 
with reference to the increase in the amount of reading 
requisite for the highest honours : ' My double-first must 



22 MR. GLADSTONE 

have been a better thing than Peel's ; Gladstone's must 
have been better than mine.' 

Among the purely intellectual effects produced on Mr. 
Gladstone by the discipline of Oxford, it is obvious to 
reckon an almost excessive exactness in the statement of 
propositions, a habit of rigorous definition, a microscopic 
care in the choice of words, and a tendency to analyze 
every sentiment and every phrase, and to distinguish with 
intense precaution between statements almost exactly 
similar. From Aristotle and Bishop Butler and Edmund 
Burke he learned the value of authority, the sacredness of 
law, the danger of laying rash and inconsiderate hands 
upon the ark of State. In the political atmosphere of 
Oxford he was taught to apply these principles to the 
civil events of his time, to dread innovation, to respect 
existing institutions, and to regard the Church and the 
Throne as inseparably associated by Divine ordinance. 

The Toryism of the place was of a romantic and old- 
fashioned type, as far as possible removed from the utili- 
tarian Conservatism of a later day. Charles I. was a saint 
and martyr, and loyalty to the Stuarts was a sentiment 
which, though no longer practical, still lingered in the 
dreams of men. The claims of rank and birth were 
admitted with a childlike cheerfulness. The high function 
of government was the birthright of the few. The people 
had nothing to do with the laws, except to obey them. 
Mr. Gladstone has told us that in academical circles liberty 
was regarded with jealousy and fear, as something which 
could not be dispensed with, 'but which was continually 
to be watched for fear of excess.' 

The distinctly religious effect of Oxford on Mr. Glad- 
stone's mind was perhaps less direct than has been 



THEOLOGY AT OXFORD 23 

generally supposed. His was what Tertullian calls ' anima 
naturaliter Christiana.' He had been carefully brought up. 
His father was a God-fearing man according to his light 
and opportunity ; his mother a devout Evangelical. At 
Eton he had been honourably distinguished by simple 
devotion and stainless living. When he entered Oxford 
the Catholic revival had not yet begun. Cardinal Newman 
taught us to date it from the 14th of July, 1833. But the 
High Church party held the field. With the exception 
of a handful of Evangelicals at one obscure college, 
the religious clergy and laity of Oxford were High 
Churchmen of the traditional type. Dr. Routh. still survived 
to ' report,' as Newman said, ' to a forgetful generation 
what had been the theology of their fathers ' ; though his in- 
fluence was not felt beyond the walls of Magdalen College. 
The Caroline divinity still lingered. Men believed in 
the Church as a Divine society, as well as a chief institu- 
tion of the realm ; they set store upon her Orders and 
Sacraments, and at least professed great respect for, if they 
did not cultivate intimate acquaintance with, the writings of 
her standard divines. At the same time, they had a holy 
horror of Popish usurpation, and Sir Robert Peel's concession 
of the Catholic claims had just cost him his seat for the 
University. But these influences produced no immediate or 
conscious effect on Mr. Gladstone's mind. The ecclesiastical 
atmosphere of the place was High and Dry, and therefore as 
little as possible attractive to an ardent and spiritual nature. 
Had his undergraduate career been a few years later, when 
the fascinating genius and austere sanctity of Cardinal New- 
man had begun to leaven the University, he would probably 
have been numbered with that band of devoted disciples 
who followed the great Oratorian whithersoever he went. 



24 MR. GLADSTONE 

But between 1829 and 1832 there was no leader of para- 
mount authority in the religious world of Oxford, and the 
young student of Christ Church was left to develope his 
own opinions and frame his own course. The blameless 
schoolboy became a blameless undergraduate ; diligent, 
sober, regular alike in study and devotion, giving his whole 
energies to the duties of the place, and quietly abiding in 
the religious faith in which he had been trained. Bishop 
Charles Wordsworth said that no man of his standing in 
the University habitually read his Bible more or knew it 
better. Cardinal Manning described him walking to 
church with his ' Bible and Prayer-book tucked under his 
arm.' He paid surreptitious visits to Dissenting chapels ; 
denounced Bishop Butler's doctrine that human nature is 
not wholly corrupt; was enraged by a University sermon 
in which Calvin had been placed on the same level of 
orthodoxy as Socinus ; and quitted Oxford with a religious 
belief still untinctured by Catholic theology. But the great 
change was not far distant, and he had already formed 
some of the friendships which, in their development, were 
destined to affect so profoundly the course of his religious 
thought. 

Leaving the University in this devout though not eccle- 
siastical frame of mind, Mr. Gladstone pondered carefully 
the choice of a profession. Conscious of great powers, 
keenly anxious to use them for God's glory and the service 
of men, and relieved by his father's wealth from the neces- 
sity of making his own fortune, he turned his thoughts to 
Holy Orders. There still exists a deeply interesting letter in 
which he urges, with characteristic earnestness, the rea- 
sons which impelled him to a clerical career. But his 
father had resolved otherwise, and the paternal will pre- 



SIX MONTHS IN ITALY 25 

vailed. Quitting Oxford in the spring of 1832 Mr. Gladstone 
spent six months in Italy, learning the language, studying 
the art, and revelling in the natural beauties of that glori- 
ous land. In the following September, he was suddenly 
recalled to England, to undertake his first parliamentary 
campaign. 



26 MR. GLADSTONE 



CHAPTER II 

Enters Parliament — Early speeches— Office — Opposition. 

The English nation had now reached one of the main 
turning-points in its history. That which the Duke of 
Wellington so aptly described as a revolution by due 
course of law had taken place, and the most extravagant 
expectations filled the air. The enthusiastic friends of 
freedom looked with sanguine hope to the consequences of 
an act which had admitted large classes, hitherto unrepre- 
sented, to the rights of citizenship. Prudent patriots 
believed that, by a timely concession of reform, they had 
weakened the forces of revolution and averted the neces- 
sity for larger change. Philanthropists cherished the amiable 
illusion that a purely political process would go far towards 
abolishing ignorance and poverty and disease, and would 
precipitate a social millennium. On the other hand, the rich 
and the privileged classes, timid men, and lovers of the 
ancient ways, were terrified by the scenes of bloodshed and 
violence which had prepared the way for the great reform. 
A revolution had just occurred in France, and might at any 
moment be reproduced in England. Ireland was in a state 
of scarcely-veiled insurrection. Great political forces, hostile 
to the established order, and encouraged by a momentous 
victory, were no longer restrained by the strong hand of 
executive authority. Credit was disturbed, property was 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES 27 

insecure, commercial enterprise at a standstill. Everywhere 
the signs of change were visible. The horizon was overcast 
with the dark clouds of coming danger. Natural disasters 
were added to political alarms. A mysterious and in- 
tractable pestilence ravaged the great cities. Men's hearts 
were failing them for fear and for looking after those things 
that were coming on the earth. Religious people, assem- 
bling themselves together for the study of sacred pro- 
phecy, discerned all around them the signs of the end, and 
persuaded themselves that the world had already entered 
upon that Great Tribulation which is appointed to precede 
the Second Coming of Christ. The terrors of the time 
begat a hundred forms of strange fanaticism ; and among 
men who were not fanatics there was a deep and wide con- 
viction that national judgments were overtaking national 
sins, and that the only hope of safety for England lay in a 
return to that practical recognition of religion in the political 
sphere which had been the characteristic glory of English- 
men at the proudest moments of English history. ' The be- 
ginning and the end of what is the matter with us in these 
days,' wrote Carlyle, ' is that we have forgotten God.' 

It was a moment well calculated to awake the enthusiasm 
of an ardent and gifted youth, educated in an Evangelical 
home, trained to dread revolution and to abhor infidelity, 
and conscious of exceptional qualifications for the service of 
the State ; and we who know the man, have seen his career 
and have watched the workings of his fiery spirit, can ima- 
gine the solemn eagerness with which, in the autumn of 1832, 
the young politician turned his steps from Italy to England. 

The fifth Duke of Newcastle was one of the chief 
potentates of the High Tory party. His frank claim to * do 
what he liked with his own ' in the representation of 



28 



MR. GLADSTONE 



Newark has given him a place in political history. But 
that claim had been rudely disputed by the return of a 
Radical lawyer at the election of 1831. The Duke was 
anxious to obtain a capable candidate to aid him in regain- 
ing his ascendency over the rebellious borough. His son, 
Lord Lincoln, who was to contest Nottinghamshire, had 
been a friend, at Eton and Oxford, of Mr. William Gladstone, 
had heard his memorable speech against the Reform Bill 
delivered in the Oxford Union, and had written home 
that 'a man had uprisen in Israel.' At his suggestion, 
the Duke invited the young student of Christ Church to 
stand for Newark in the Tory interest, against Mr. Serjeant 
Wilde, afterwards Lord Chancellor Truro. He could 
scarcely have found a more suitable instrument for the 
accomplishment of his design. 

William Ewart Gladstone was now twenty-two years 
old, with a physical constitution of unequalled vigour, the 
prospect of ample fortune, great and varied knowledge, a 
natural tendency to political theorization, and an inex- 
haustible copiousness and readiness of speech. In person 
he was striking and attractive, with strongly-marked features, 
a pale complexion, abundance of dark hair, and eyes of 
piercing lustre. People who judged only by his external 
aspect considered that he was delicate. 

His address to the electors was all that such a document 
should be. He was bound by the opinions of no man and 
no party, but felt it a duty to watch and resist that growing 
desire for change which threatened to produce, ' along with 
partial good, a melancholy preponderance of mischief.' 
The first principle to which he looked for national salvation 
was that the ' duties of Governors are strictly and peculiarly 
religious, and that Legislatures, like individuals, are bound 



THE ELECTION AT NEWARK 29 

to carry throughout their acts the spirit of the high truths 
they have acknowledged.' The condition of the poor de- 
manded special attention ; labour should receive adequate 
remuneration, and he thought favourably of the ( allotment 
of cottage grounds.' He regarded slavery as sanctioned by 
Holy Scripture, but the slaves ought to be educated, and 
gradually emancipated. 

The nomination took place on December 11. Mr. 
Gladstone spoke amid continuous interruption, and was 
subjected to a severe cross-examination as to the circum- 
stances of his candidature, his father's connexion with 
slavery, and his own view of capital punishment. Here his 
dialectical ingenuity stood him in good stead, and one can 
almost sympathize with the perplexity of the Radical elector 
who, on asking the Tory candidate if he was the Duke 
of Newcastle's nominee, was met by the intimation that, 
before answering that question, Mr. Gladstone must have 
the questioner's definition of the term ' nominee.' ' Mr. 
Gillson said he meant a person sent by the Duke of 
Newcastle to be pushed down the electors' throats whether 
they would or not.' Really, as times go, this seems not a 
bad definition ; but Mr. Gladstone replied that, according 
to that definition, 'he was not a nominee. He came to 
Newark by the invitation of the Red Club, than whom 
none were more respectable and intelligent.' 

The contest was fought out with great spirit and deter- 
mination, and when it closedJfMr. Gladstone was returned 
at the head of the poll. The borough returned two 
members : another Tory was second, and Serjeant Wilde 
was defeated. A few weeks before the election Mr. Arthur 
Hallam, writing of his friend, ' the old WEG,' says : ' I shall 
be very glad if he gets in. ... We want such a man as that. 



30 MR. GLADSTONE 

In some things he is likely to be obstinate and prejudiced ; 
but he has a fine fund of high, chivalrous, Tory sentiment, 
and a tongue, moreover, to let it loose with.' And on 
December 15 he exclaims, 'And Gladstone has turned out 
the Serjeant ! . . . What a triumph for him ! He has made 
his reputation by it ; all that remains is to keep up to it.' 

The following descriptive prophecy, perhaps more re- 
markable for good feeling than for good poetry, was written 
by one of Mr. Gladstone's Liberal opponents in the Union 
at Oxford, and it is worthy of quotation as showing the 
impression which his talents and character had made even 
upon those of his contemporaries whose political opinions 
were the most remote from his own : 

Yet on one form, whose ear can ne'er refuse 

The Muses' tribute, for he lov'd the Muse, 

(And when the soul the gen'rous virtues raise, 

A friendly Whig may chant a Tory's praise), 

Full many a fond expectant eye is bent 

Where Newark's towers are mirror' d in the Trent. 

Perchance ere long to shine in senates first, 

If manhood echo what his youth rehears'd, 

Soon Gladstone's brows will bloom with greener bays 

Than twine the chaplet of a minstrel's lays ; 

Nor heed, while poring o'er each graver line. 

The far, faint music of a lute like mine. 

His was no head contentedly which press'd 

The downy pillow in obedient rest, 

Where lazy pilots, with their canvas furl'd, 

Set up the Gades of their mental world ; 

His was no tongue which meanly stoop'd to wear 

The guise of virtue, while his heart was bare ; 

But all he thought through ev'ry action ran ; 

God's noblest work — I've known one honest man. 1 

1 Black Gowns and Red Coats : a satirical poem. By George Cox, 
M.A., Fellow of New College, Oxford. 1834. 



THE REFORMED PARLIAMENT 31 

The first Reformed Parliament met on January 29, 1833, 
and the young member for Newark took his seat for the 
first time in an assembly which he was destined to adorn, 
delight, and astonish for more than half a century, and 
over which, for a great portion of that period, he was to 
wield an unequalled and a paramount authority. The 
House of Commons contained more than three hundred new 
members. The Whigs, led by Lord Althorp, had a large 
majority; but there was a compact minority of Tories, 
ranged under the skilful leadership of Sir Robert Peel, and 
a body of Irish members who followed O'Connell, and 
who might be reckoned as hostile to the Ministry. 

The subjects which loomed largest in the public mind 
were the social condition of Ireland and the position of the 
Established Church in that island, the discontent and 
misery of the poor in England, and slavery in the British 
Colonies. No reference to the last-named subject was 
made in the Speech from the Throne, but, under salutary 
pressure from some of their supporters, the Government 
resolved to deal with it. The Colonial Secretary, Mr. 
Stanley, afterwards fourteenth Earl of Derby and Prime 
Minister, brought forward a series of Resolutions in favour 
of the extinction of slavery in the British colonies. All 
children of slaves, born after the passing of the Act, and 
all children of six years old and under, were declared free. 
But the rest of the slaves were to serve a sort of apprentice- 
ship ; three-fourths of their time was for a certain number 
of years to remain at the disposal of the masters ; the other 
fourth was their own, to be paid for at a fixed rate of wages. 
The planters were to be fairly compensated out of the 
exchequer. The discussion of these resolutions was sig- 
nalized by Mr. Gladstone's maiden speech in Parliament. 



32 MR. GLADSTONE 

It was delivered in reply to what was almost a personal 
challenge. On the first night of the debate Lord Howick, 
afterwards Lord Grey, who had been Under-Secretary for 
the Colonies, and who opposed the resolutions as proceeding 
too gradually towards abolition, cited certain occurrences 
on Sir John Gladstone's plantation in Demerara to illus- 
trate his contention that the system of slave-labour in the 
West Indies was attended by great mortality among the 
slaves. On June 3 Mr. Gladstone delivered his reply 
to Lord Howick. Among those who knew the young 
member for Newark his speech was anticipated with lively 
expectation. 

He was riding that morning in Hyde Park, a noticeable 
figure on his grey Arabian mare, with ' his hat, narrow- 
brimmed, high up on the centre of his head, sustained by 
a crop of thick, curly hair.' A passer-by pointed him out to 
another new member — Lord Charles Russell — and said, 'That 
is Gladstone. He is to make his maiden speech to-night. 
It will be worth hearing.' The speech began with all due 
modesty. The speaker avowed that he had a pecuniary 
interest in the question, ' and, if he might say so much without 
exciting suspicion, a still deeper interest in it as a question 
of justice, of humanity, and of religion.' Lord Howick had 
attacked the management of his father's estates. He met 
some of the noble Lord's statements with denials, and others 
with explanations. If there had recently been a high mortality 
on the plantation, it was due to the age of the slaves rather 
than to any peculiar hardship in their lot. It was true that 
the particular system of cultivation practised in Demerara 
was more trying than some others ; but then it might be 
said that no two trades were equally conducive to health. 
Steel-grinding was notoriously unhealthy, and manufactur- 



THE CONDITION OF IRELAND 33 

ing processes generally were less favourable to life than 
agricultural. While strongly condemning cruelty, Mr. 
Gladstone declared himself an advocate of emancipation, 
but held that it should be effected gradually, and after due 
preparation. The slaves must be religiously educated, and 
stimulated to profitable industry. The owners of emanci- 
pated slaves were entitled to receive compensation from 
Parliament, because it was Parliament that had established 
this description of property. ' I do not,' said Mr. Gladstone, 
' view property as an abstract thing ; it is the creature of 
civil society. By the legislature it is granted, and by the 
legislature it is destroyed.' 

During the same Session Mr. Gladstone spoke on the 
question of bribery and corruption at Liverpool, and on 
July 8 he made an elaborate speech on the Church Tem- 
poralities (Ireland) Bill. 

The condition of Ireland was then, as since, the most 
urgent of all the problems which awaited the Ministry. 
Macaulay ' solemnly declared that he would rather live in 
the midst of many civil wars that he had read of than in 
some parts of Ireland at this moment.' Sydney Smith did 
not over-colour the picture when he described ' those Irish 
Protestants whose shutters are bullet-proof ; whose dinner- 
table is regularly spread out with knife, fork, and cocked 
pistol ; salt-cellar, and powder-flask ; who sleep in sheet- 
iron nightcaps ; who have fought so often and so nobly 
before their scullery-door, and defended the parlour pas- 
sage as bravely as Leonidas defended the pass of Ther- 
mopylae.' 

In the province of Leinster alone, in the previous July, 
August, and September, there had been 1,279 crimes, and 
\r\ the following three months the number had risen to 1,641. 

D 



34 MR. GLADSTONE 

During the year, the catalogue of outrages contained 172 
homicides, 465 robberies, 568 burglaries, 454 acts of cruelty 
to cattle, 2,095 illegal notices, 425 illegal meetings, 796 
malicious injuries to property, 753 attacks on houses, 280 
arsons, and 3,156 serious assaults — in all, more than 9,000 
crimes connected with the disaffected state of the people. 
To remedy this condition, the Government, on February 15, 
introduced a stringent Coercion Bill. Power was placed in 
the hands of the Lord Lieutenant to suppress every meeting 
or association which he regarded as dangerous to the preser- 
vation of peace, and to declare any district to be in a disturbed 
state. In a district so proclaimed, the inhabitants were to 
be confined to their houses from an hour after sunset to 
sunrise ; the right of meeting and petitioning was withdrawn ; 
and they were placed under martial law. The Bill further 
gave power to enter houses in search of arms, forbade the 
distribution of seditious papers, and suspended the Habeas 
Corpus Act in the disturbed districts. Mr. Gladstone gave 
silent votes for the Bill, which duly passed into law. 
Meanwhile, in order to render this drastic Act more palat- 
able, the Ministry, on February 12, introduced a Bill for the 
regulation of the Irish Church. Even the warmest defenders 
of that institution could scarcely deny that it stood in need of 
some reform. In a country with some eight millions of inha- 
bitants, the Established Church boasted some eight hundred 
thousand members. It had four Archbishops and eighteen 
Bishops, with an aggregate income of 150,000/. a year, and 
a body of parochial clergy supported by tithes which were 
exacted, not only from the Protestant minority, but from the 
six millions of Catholics. Besides the payment of tithes, a 
special tax, or ' Church-cess,' for the maintenance of the 
ecclesiastical fathers and their services, was levied indis- 



THE WHIGS AND THE CHURCH 35 

criminately on members of all religions, but administered 
exclusively by Protestant vestries. It was estimated that 
from first to last the income of the Church was more than 
800,000/. a year. To remedy these anomalies, without too 
violently disturbing Protestant sentiment or endangering the 
security of property, was the object of the Ministerial Bill. 
It was proposed to destroy ten of the bishoprics by con- 
solidating them with the remainder. The incomes of some 
of the richer sees were curtailed, and the surplus thus 
arising was to be handed over to Ecclesiastical Com- 
missioners. The ' annates,' or first-fruits of livings, had 
formerly been applied in relief of the ' Church-cess.' 
Instead of these, a graduated tax was to be laid on all 
livings, and with the money thus accruing the ' Church- 
cess ' was to be extinguished. The terms on which lands 
belonging to the Church were let were to be so altered as 
to improve the position of the tenant without injuring the 
clergy. The tenant, it was calculated, would be willing to 
pay for this advantage, and the sum thus gained would 
amount to something between two and three millions. 
This money was to be available for purposes of State. 

As soon as this Bill was introduced it was exposed to a 
double and treble fire of criticism. O'Conncll and the 
Irish party scouted the relief, which consisted only in the 
abolition of the ' Church-cess.' English Radicals declared 
that, instead of twelve Bishops, the Irish Protestants were 
not numerous enough to require more than one, or at the 
most ' two, to keep up the breed.' The Tories raised the 
cry of confiscation, and loudly declared that all property 
was imperilled by the Appropriation Clause. The High 
Church party took up arms to withstand what they regarded 
as a sacrilegious attack upon a Divine institution. Lord 

d 2 



36 MR GLADSTONE 

Grey, who, in his insolence towards the Church, was a Whig 
all over, had told the Bishops to set their house in order. 
The spoliation begun in Ireland might soon extend to 
England. The saintly Keble, preaching the Assize-sermon 
at Oxford, uttered a warning note against 'national 
apostasy.' 

The young member for Newark, speaking on the second 
reading of the Bill, faced the danger with a courageous 
front. He would not shelter himself, he said, under a 
silent vote. He admitted the existence of abuses in the 
Irish Establishment. The Church had slumbered, but, 
since the Union, had awoke to a new life and fresh energy. 
It was a popular cry to denounce the Irish Church on 
account of its 'wealth,' but poverty was no guarantee of 
efficiency. The churches of the Vaudois were poor enough, 
but could anyone cite them as models of practical work ? 
It was a social advantage to Ireland that in every parish 
there should be an educated gentleman and a Christian by 
profession. The work of the Church was not aggressive : it 
only required a fair opportunity of setting forth the distinc- 
tive doctrines of Protestantism. He could not support the 
suppression of any of the bishoprics, for, as the work and 
usefulness of the Church increased, there would be full 
occupation for all the Bishops of the existing Establish- 
ment. 

After an animated debate, Lord Althorp withdrew the 
Appropriation Clause, which asserted the only important 
principle of the Bill — i.e. the right of Parliament to apply 
ecclesiastical property to the uses of the State — and the Bill, 
at once lightened and weakened, passed into law without 
further opposition. 

In the following Session, Mr. Hume, the Radical mem- 



RELIGIOUS TESTS AT OXFORD 37 

ber for Middlesex, introduced a 'Universities Admission 
Bill,' designed to enable Nonconformists of all kinds to enter 
the Universities, by removing the necessity of subscribing 
the Thirty-nine Articles at matriculation. Here Mr. 
Gladstone was thoroughly in his element. In defending 
slavery he had spoken from his father's brief ; in defending 
the Irish Church he had perforce relied on impressive 
generalities. But in a question affecting the religious 
character and discipline of the Universities, the member 
for Newark, who was also a Student of Christ Church, 
and who had only three years before been a model under- 
graduate, could speak with the full authority of personal 
and recent knowledge. His foot, as Rob Roy says, was on 
his native heath. It was an excellent opportunity excellently 
used. Mr. Gladstone's speech in reply to Mr. Hume was 
skilful and characteristic. It seems that Mr. Hume, having 
no practical acquaintance with the Universities, imagined 
that if the Vice-Chancellor were no longer empowered to 
demand subscription as the condition of matriculation, all 
difficulties in the way of the admission of Dissenters would 
vanish. Mr. Gladstone reminded him that this was not so ; 
that the Vice-Chancellor would still enquire to what college 
the candidate for matriculation belonged, and the colleges 
would take good care to admit no one who would not 
subscribe. The Bill would therefore be inoperative so far 
as its immediate object was concerned ; but still it would 
lead to great dissensions and confusion. The whole system 
of the University and of its colleges, both in study and in 
discipline, aimed at the formation of a moral character, and 
that aim could not be attained if every student were at 
liberty to exclude himself from the religious training of the 
place. 



38 MR. GLADSTONE 

One point which Mr. Gladstone incidentally makes 
speaks volumes for the life which he had lived at Oxford, 
and the kind of company that he had kept there. Lord 
Palmerston had expressed a reasonable dislike of a system 
which compelled the undergraduates to go ' from wine to 
prayers, and prayers to wine.' But Mr. Gladstone had a 
better opinion of the undergraduates who had so lately 
been his companions. He did not believe that even in their 
most convivial moments they were unfit to enter the House 
of Prayer. Oxford produces few men, in any generation, to 
whom this would suggest itself as a possible vindication of 
compulsory Chapel. 

From a perusal of these speeches, and from contem- 
porary evidence, it is clear that, when due allowance for 
growth and development is made, Mr. Gladstone's early 
style of oratory was pretty much what it is to-day. His 
voice was always clear, flexible, and melodious, though his 
utterance was marked then, even more conspicuously than 
now, by a Lancastrian ' burr ' ; his gesture was varied 
and animated, but not violent. He turned his face and 
body from side to side, and often wheeled round to face 
his own party as he appealed for their cheers. The re- 
ports of his speeches in the Debating Society at Eton 
prove that, even in his earliest days, he had an immense 
command of language. Like Pitt, he showed ' a pre- 
mature and unnatural dexterity in the combination of 
words,' and then, as now, he was only too fluent. That 
brevity could be a merit in composition he seems to have 
been unaware, for he expresses ingenuous surprise that 
the examiners for the Ireland scholarship at Oxford had 
considered it a merit in one Brancker, the winner, 
that he answered ' all the questions short.' A reporter 



STYLE OF SPEAKING 39 

who had professionally experienced his fluency on the 
hustings at Newark considered him quite equal to de- 
livering a three-hours' speech to the mob. His style 
of composition was redundant and involved ; and his 
speeches were freely garnished with Horatian and Virgilian 
citations. 

If his early manner of public speaking resembled his 
later manner in its faults, the resemblance was no less close 
in its characteristic excellences. ' Did you ever feel nervous 
in public speaking ? ' asked an eminent man. ' In opening 
a subject, often,' said Mr. Gladstone ; ' in reply, never. 1 
A critic of public men, writing in 1838, remarks that Mr. 
Gladstone ' displays considerable acuteness in replying to 
an opponent ; he is quick in his perception of anything 
vulnerable in the speech to which he replies, and happy in 
laying the weak points bare to the House. . . . He is 
plausible, even when most in error. When it suits himself or 
his party he can apply himself with the strictest closeness 
to the real points at issue ; when to evade the point is 
deemed most politic, no man can wander from it more 
widely.' Later critics have sometimes made a similar 
observation. 

Meanwhile, difficulties were thickening round the Whig 
Government. The Reform Act had not produced the mil- 
lennium. Lord Grey's Cabinet had grievously disappointed 
the expectations of reformers. Occupying a middle posi- 
tion between the Tories and the Radicals, it swayed from 
time to time in each direction, and of course satisfied 
no one. No considerable measure of the Government 
had been passed without important modifications. Every 
scheme which they propounded bore the marks of com- 
promise. 



40 MR. GLADSTONE 

While the friends of .freedom and progress were dis- 
appointed by the slackness and indecision of the Govern- 
ment, the forces of tyranny, discovering with joy that 
the Reform Act had not, after all, demolished them, took 
heart of grace, and rallied themselves for a struggle to 
regain their lost ascendency. ' Conservative reaction ' 
became an accepted formula. On both sides the Ministers 
were exposed to damaging criticism. In the House of Lords 
the Duke of Wellington declared that their foreign policy 
had not produced European peace, that their ecclesiastical 
concessions had done no good in Ireland, and that they did 
not know their own minds about the renewal of the Coercion 
Act. On the other hand, at great public meetings in 
London and the provincial towns, it was declared that the 
Whig Government, by violating the Constitution of Ireland, 
refusing to enquire into public distress, and continuing 
obnoxious taxation, had betrayed the confidence of the 
people. 

The Trade-Unions, which had hitherto worked in iso- 
lation, now combined their forces and threatened the 
security of the Government, and even, as it would seem, 
plotted a bodily attack upon the Home Secretary. The 
agricultural labourers rose in organized opposition to their 
employers. Everywhere the symptoms of discontent were 
manifest, and the Cabinet, thus beset with external dangers, 
was torn asunder by internal strife. 

Lord Grey's stock of Liberalism, never a very ample 
one, had been exhausted by the Reform Bill. He was 
perpetually harassed and disturbed by his imperious son- 
in-law, Lord Durham, whose fiery temper and impetuous 
radicalism would be satisfied by no half measures. On the 
other hand, Mr. Stanley had a passion for what is called 



THE KING AND THE WHIGS 4 1 

' Resolute Government ' in Ireland, and this was highly 
distasteful to the prudent and conciliatory temper of Lord 
Althorp. A proposal of the Government to issue a Com- 
mission to enquire into the Irish Church and the redis- 
tribution of its revenues was so abhorrent to the more 
conservative members of the Cabinet that it led to the re- 
signation of Mr. Stanley, Sir James Graham, the Duke of 
Richmond, and Lord Ripon. On the other hand, when it 
became necessary to renew the Coercion Act, a sharp 
difference of opinion arose in the Cabinet as to the desir- 
ability of renewing those clauses which provided for the 
suppression of Petition and the establishment of martial 
law, and, after some very undignified disclosures in the 
House of Commons, Lord Althorp, who had favoured the 
milder course, withdrew from office. This was the last 
straw. Lord Grey immediately resigned. After a futile 
attempt to form a joint Government of Whigs and moderate 
Tories, the former Cabinet was reconstructed under the 
premiership of Lord Melbourne. But another crisis was 
close at hand. On November 10, 1834, Lord Spencer 
died, and the accession of his son, Lord Althorp, to the 
peerage made a vacancy in the Leadership of the House 
of Commons. 

The King was at Brighton. Lord Melbourne waited on 
him there, to take his pleasure as to the new arrangements 
which Lord Spencer's death had rendered necessary. He 
submitted a choice of names for the Chancellorship of 
the Exchequer and Leadership of the House of Com- 
mons. The King took time to consider. Next day he sent 
for Lord Melbourne again, and handed him a letter an- 
nouncing his decision. In this letter the King stated that, 
having lost the services of Lord Althorp as Leader of the 



42 ' MR. GLADSTONE 

House of Commons, he could feel no confidence in the 
stability of his Government when led by any other member 
of it ; that they were already in a minority in the House of 
Lords, and he had every reason to believe that the removal 
of Lord Althorp would speedily put them in the same situa- 
tion in the other House ; that under such circumstances he 
felt other arrangements to be necessary ; and that it was 
his intention to send for the Duke of Wellington. Nothing 
could be more peremptory and decisive. The King had 
dismissed his Ministers. The event had an interest far 
beyond its immediate consequences. It was the last great 
act of royal prerogative. 

The dismissal of the Whig Ministers threw parties and 
politicians into unspeakable confusion. No one, it would 
seem, was less prepared for it than the Duke of Wellington, on 
whom the King laid the duty of carrying on his government. 
The Duke's natural affinities were with the High Tory 
party, but he had sense enough to perceive that the cautious 
temper and moderate opinions of Sir Robert Peel were 
more acceptable to the country, and would form an indis- 
pensable element in the new Administration. Sir Robert 
had gone abroad after the Session, and was now in Rome. 
A messenger (who lived to be famous as the diplomatist 
Sir James Hudson) was despatched to bring him back. 
His return was awaited with feverish anxiety, and in the 
meantime the Duke of Wellington provisionally undertook 
the offices of First Lord of the Treasury, Home Secretary, 
Foreign Secretary, and Colonial Secretary. Lord Lynd- 
hurst became Lord Chancellor. The conjuncture was inter- 
esting, and an eye-witness has described it with admirable 
skill : 



A LIVELY WINTER 43 

It was a lively season, that winter of 1834 ! What hopes, 
what fears, and what bets ! From the day on which Mr. Hud- 
son was to arrive at Rome to the election of the Speaker, not a 
contingency that was not the subject of a wager ! People 
sprang up like mushrooms ; town suddenly became full. Every- 
body who had been in office, and everybody who wished to be 
in office ; everybody who had ever had anything, and everybody 
who ever expected to have anything, were alike visible. All of 
course by mere accident ; one might meet the same men regu- 
larly every day for a month, who were only ' passing through 
town.' 

Now was the time for men to come forward who had never 
despaired of their country. True, they had voted for the Reform 
Bill, but that was to prevent a revolution. And now they were 
quite ready to vote against the Reform Bill, but this was to pre- 
vent a dissolution. These are the true patriots, whose confidence 
in the good sense of their countrymen and in their own selfish- 
ness is about equal. In the meantime, the hundred and forty 
threw a grim glance on the numerous waiters on Providence, 
and amiable trimmers, who affectionately enquired every day 
when news might be expected of Sir Robert. Though too weak 
to form a Government, and having contributed in no wise by 
their exertions to the fall of the late, the cohort of parliamentary 
Tories felt all the alarm of men who have accidentally stumbled 
on some treasure-trove, at the suspicious sympathy of new 
allies. But, after all, who were to form the Government, and 
what was the Government, to be ? Was it to be a Tory Govern- 
ment, or an Enlightened-Spirit-of-the-Age Liberal-Moderate- 
Reform Government ; was it to be a Government of high philo- 
sophy or of low practice ; of principle or of expediency ; of great 
measures or of little men? A Government of statesmen or of 
clerks ? Of Humbug or of Humdrum ? Great questions these, 
but unfortunately there was nobody to answer them. They 
tried the Duke ; but nothing could be pumped out of him. All 
that he knew, which he told in his curt, husky manner, was 
that he had to carry on the King's government. As for his 
solitary colleague, he listened and smiled, and then in his 



44 MR. GLADSTONE 

musical voice asked them questions in return, which is the best 
possible mode of avoiding awkward enquiries. It was very 
unfair this ; for no one knew what tone to take — whether they 
should go down to their public dinners and denounce the Re- 
form Act or praise it ; whether the Church was to be re-modelled 
or only admonished ; whether Ireland was to be conquered or 
conciliated. . . . 

At last he came ; the great man in a great position, sum- 
moned from Rome to govern England. The very day that he 
arrived he had his audience with the King. 

It was two days after this audience ; the town, though 
November, in a state of excitement ; clubs crowded, not 
only morning-rooms, but halls and staircases swarming with 
members eager to give and to receive rumours equally vain ; 
streets lined with cabs and chariots, grooms and horses. . . . 

Here might be marked a murmuring knot of grey-headed 
privy councillors, who had held fat offices under Perceval and 
Liverpool, and who looked back to the Reform Act as to a 
hideous dream ; there some middle-aged aspirants might be 
observed who had lost their seats in the convulsion, but who 
flattered themselves they had done something for the party in 
the interval, by spending nothing except their breath in fighting 
hopeless boroughs, and occasionally publishing a pamphlet, 
which really produced less effect than chalking the walls. 
Light as air, and proud as a young peacock, tripped on his toes 
a young Tory, who had contrived to keep his seat in a Parlia- 
ment where he had done nothing, but who thought an Under- 
Secretaryship was now secure, particularly as he was the son of 
a noble Lord who had also in a public capacity plundered and 
blundered in the good old time. The true political adventurer, 
who with dull desperation had stuck at nothing, had never 
neglected a Treasury note, had been present at every division, 
never spoke when he was asked to be silent, and was always 
ready on any subject when they wanted him to open his mouth — 
who had treated his leaders with servility even behind their 
backs, and was happy for the day if a future Secretary of the 
Treasury bowed to him ; who had not only discountenanced 
discontent in the party, but had regularly reported in strict con- 



A LORD OF THE TREASURY 45 

fidence every instance of insubordination which came to his 
knowledge — might there, too, be detected under all the agonies 
of the crisis ; just beginning to feel the dread misgiving whether 
being a slave and a sneak were sufficient qualifications for 
office, without family or connexion. Poor ellow ! half the in- 
dustry he had wasted on his cheerless craft might have made 
his fortune in some decent trade ! 

In dazzling contrast with these throes of low ambition, were 
some brilliant personages who had just scampered up from 
Melton, thinking it probable that Sir Robert might want some 
moral lords of the bedchamber. Whatever may have been 
their private fears or feelings, all, however, seemed smiling and 
significant, as if they knew something if they chose to tell it, 
and that something very much to their own satisfaction. The 
only grave countenance that was occasionally ushered into the 
room belonged to some individual whose destiny was not in 
doubt, and who was already practising the official air that 
was in future to repress the familiarity of his former fellow- 
strugglers. 

In the scramble for offices, so delightfully described by 
Lord Beaconsfieid in the foregoing pages, there was one 
result which was inevitable. Mr. Gladstone must be a 
member of the new Government. When a Prime Minister 
in difficulties, looking about for men to fill the minor offices 
of his Administration, sees among his supporters a clever 
and comely young man, eloquent in speech, ready in debate, 
with a safe seat, an ample fortune, a high reputation at the 
University, and a father who wields political influence in 
an important constituency, he sees a junior Lord of the 
Treasury made ready to his hand. 

On Christmas Eve, Mr. Gladstone, having accepted 
office, issued his address to the electors of Newark. This 
document was, as it was bound to be, an echo of the 
manifesto which Sir Robert Peel had addressed to the 



46 MR. GLADSTONE 

electors of Tamworth. Sir Robert had declared that the 
Reform- Act was a final and irrevocable settlement of a 
great constitutional question, and a settlement which no 
friend to the peace and welfare of the country would attempt 
to disturb. But he expressed the readiness of the Govern- 
ment to reform real abuses and defects, though they 
declined to seek 'a false popularity by adopting every 
popular impression of the day.' 

In the same strain Mr. Gladstone told the electors of 
Newark that the best friends of the late Ministry had been 
alienated from it by its tendency to rash, violent, and 
indefinite innovation, and that there were even ' those 
among the servants of the King who did not scruple to 
solicit the suffrages of their constituents with promises to 
act on the principles of Radicalism.' Mr. Gladstone went on 
to say : ' The question has then, as it appears to me, become, 
whether we are to hurry onwards at intervals, but not long 
ones, through the medium of the ballot, short Parliaments, 
and other questions called popular, into republicanism or 
anarchy ; or whether, independently of all party distinction, 
the people will support the Crown in the discharge of its 
duty to maintain in efficiency and transmit in safety those 
old and valuable institutions under which our country has 
greatly flourished. . . . Let me add shortly, but emphatic- 
ally, concerning the reform of actual abuses, whether in 
Church or State, that I regard it as a sacred duty — a duty at 
all times, and certainly not least at a period like this, when 
the danger of neglecting it is most clear and imminent— a 
duty not inimical to true and determined Conservative prin- 
ciple, nor a curtailment or modification of such principle, 
but its legitimate consequence, or rather an actual element 
of its composition.' 



AN UNDER-SECRETARY 47 

Parliament was dissolved on December 29. Mr. Glad- 
stone was returned unopposed, this time in conjunction 
with the Liberal lawyer whom he had beaten at the last 
election. The new Parliament met on February 19, 1835. 
The elections had given the Liberals a considerable majority. 
The old House of Commons had been burnt down during 
the recess. It was, perhaps, a parable of actual and impend- 
ing changes that the Commons now assembled in the 
chamber which had been the House of Lords, and that for 
the first time there was a gallery for reporters in the House. 
A standing order still existed which forbade the publication 
of the debates, but the reporters' gallery was a formal and 
visible recognition of the people's right to know what their 
representatives were doing in their name. 

Immediately after the meeting of Parliament, Mr. Glad- 
stone was promoted from his post at the Treasury to the 
■ Under-Secretaryship for the Colonies. His official chief 
was Lord Aberdeen, and thus began a relation which was 
destined to affect momentously the careers of both the 
younger and the older statesman. Alike in the House and 
in his office the new Under-Secretary gave proof of his 
great capacity and untiring energies. But the Administra- 
tion was not long-lived. On March 30, Lord John Russell 
moved his resolution in favour of an enquiry into the 
temporalities of the Irish Church, with the intention of 
applying the surplus to general education without dis- 
tinction of religious creed. This was in fact a revival of the 
abandoned ' Appropriation Clause,' and it was carried 
against Ministers by a majority of thirty-three. On April 8, 
Sir Robert Peel resigned, and the Under-Secretary for the 
Colonies of course followed his chief into private life. 

Released from the labours of office, Mr. Gladstone 



48 MR. GLADSTONE 

was free to follow the bent of his own inclinations, and 
to order his life according to his own ideals. Living in 
chambers in the Albany, he pursued the same even course 
of steady work, reasonable recreation, and systematic de- 
votion, which he had marked out for himself at Oxford. 
He went freely into society, dined out constantly, and took 
his part in musical parties, delighting his hearers with the 
cultivated beauty of his baritone. Mr. Monckton Milnes 
had now established himself in London, and gathered 
round him a society of young men who were interested 
in theology and politics. He used to entertain them 
at parties on Sunday evenings, and this arrangement, 
he says, writing on March 13, 1838, 'unfortunately 
excludes the more serious members, Acland, Gladstone, 
&c. I really think when people keep Friday as a fast, 
they might make a feast of Sunday.' Mr. Gladstone used 
to receive his friends at his rooms in the Albany, and on 
one occasion entertained Wordsworth at breakfast in a 
charmed circle of young adorers. 

But, though he found time for occasional relaxation, his 
days were divided between his parliamentary duties and 
study. Then, as now, his constant companions were Homer 
and Dante, and it is recorded that at this time he read the 
whole of St. Augustine, in twenty-two octavo volumes. He 
was, as always, a diligent attendant on, and a careful 
critic of, preaching, and used to frequent the services at 
St. James's, Piccadilly, and Margaret Chapel, since better 
known as All Saints', Margaret Street. At the same time 
he threw himself with diligence into the duties of a private 
member, working freely on committees, and taking con- 
stant part in debate. In 1836 he spoke with his habitual 
animation in defence of the West Indian planters, and of 



A friend's exhortation 49 

the system of apprenticeship which had taken the place of 
slavery. He spoke also on the government of Canada, 
strongly supporting the cause of authority and order ; and 
at great length on Church Rates, perorating in a most 
impressive vein on the necessity of national religion to 
the security of a State. 

On June 20, 1837, King William IV. died ; and Parlia- 
ment, having been prorogued by the young Queen in person, 
was dissolved on the 17th of the following month. Simply 
on the strength of his parliamentary reputation, Mr. Glad- 
stone was nominated, without his consent, for Manchester, 
and was placed at the bottom of the poll ; but, having been 
at the same time nominated at Newark, was again returned. 
On August 11, wearied with electioneering, he turned his 
steps to Scotland, 'to see what grouse he could persuade 
into his bag.' The new Parliament met on October 20, 
but no business of importance was transacted till after the 
Christmas recess. In 1838 Mr. Gladstone returned again 
and again to the championship of the planters, each time 
with increasing power and success. His impassioned speech 
of March 30 may be regarded as having placed him high 
among parliamentary debaters. 

On April 20, 1838, the Rev. Samuel Wilberforce, after- 
wards Bishop of Oxford, and of Winchester, wrote thus to 
Mr. Gladstone : 'It would be an affectation in you, which 
you are above, not to know that few young men have the 
weight you have in the House of Commons, and are gaining 
rapidly throughout the country. Now I do not wish to 
urge you to consider this as a talent for the use of which 
you must render an account, for so I know you do esteem 
it, but what I want to urge upon you is that you should 
calmly look far before you ; see the degree of weight and 

£ 



50 MR. GLADSTONE 

influence to which you may fairly, if God spares your 
life and powers, look forward in future years, and thus act 
now with a view to then. There is no height to which you 
may not fairly rise in this country. If it pleases God to 
spare us violent convulsions and the loss of our liberties, you 
may at a future day wield the whole government of this 
land ; and if this should be so, of what extreme moment 
will your past steps then be to the real usefulness of your 
high station. If there has been any compromise of principle 
before, you will not then be able to rise above it ; but if all 
your steps have been equal, you will not then be expected 
to descend below them. I say this to you in the sad con- 
viction that almost all our public men act from the merest 
expediency ; and that from this conventional standard, it 
must be most difficult for one living and acting amongst 
them to keep himself clear ; and yet from the conviction, 
too, that as yet you are wholly uncommitted to any low 
principles of thought or action. I would have you view 
yourself as one who may become the head of all the better 
feelings of this country, the maintainer of its Church and cf 
its liberties, and who must now be fitting himself for this 
high vocation. Suffer me to add, what I think my father's 
life so beautifully shows, that a deep and increasing personal 
religion must be the root of that firm and unwearied con- 
sistency in right, which I have ventured thus to press upon 
you. May you in another walk, and in still higher oppor- 
tunities of service, as perfectly illustrate the undoubted 
truth that those who honour Him, He will honour.' 

To this letter Mr. Gladstone replied : ' I fear entering 
on the subject to which you have given the chief part of 
your letter, because I know how large it is, and how oppres- 
sive, how all but intolerably oppressive, are the considera- 



FOREBODINGS 5 1 

tions with which it is connected. I have not to charge 
myself inwardly with having been used to look forward 
along the avenues of life rarely or neglectfully ; but rather 
with that weakness of faith, and that shrinking of the flesh, 
of which at every moment I am mournfully conscious, but 
most so when I attempt to estimate or conjecture our pro- 
bable public destinies during the term to which our natural 
lives may extend—a prospect which I confess fills me with 
despondency and alarm. 

'Not that these feelings are unmixed : they are tempered 
even as regards the period of which I speak with the confi- 
dent anticipations of new developments of religious power 
which have been forgotten in the day of insidious prosperity, 
and seem to be providentially reserved for the time of our 
need, for the swelling of Jordan ; and of course there lies 
beyond that period, for those who are appointed to it, a 
haven of perfect rest ; but still the coming years bear to my 
view an aspect of gloom for the country — not for the Church ; 
she is the land of Goshen. Looking, however, to the 
former, to the State as such, and to those who belong to it 
as citizens, I seem unable to discern resources bearing a 
just proportion to her dangers and necessities. While the 
art of politics from day to day embraces more and more 
vital questions, and enters into closer relations with the 
characters and therefore the destinies of men, there is, I 
fear, a falling away in the intellectual stature of the genera- 
tion of men whose office it is to exercise that art for good. 
While public men are called by the exigencies of their position 
to do more and more, there seems to be in the accumulation 
of business, the bewildering multiplication of details, an 
indication of their probable capacity to do less and less. 
The principles of civil government have decayed amongrt 

R 2 



52 MR. GLADSTONE 

us as much, I suspect, as those which are ecclesiastical; 
and one does not see an equally ready or sure provision for 
their revival. One sees in actual existence the apparatus by 
which our institutions are to be threatened, and the very 
groundwork of the national character to be broken up ; but 
upon the other hand, if we look around for the masses of 
principle, I mean of enlightened principle, blended with 
courage and devotion, which are the human means of resist- 
ance, these I feel have yet to be organized, almost to be 
created.' 



53 



CHAPTER III 

Religious opinions — Book on Church and State — Marriage — Becomes 
Vice-President of the Board of Trade — Admitted to the Cabinet — 
Resigns. 

This year — 1838 — claims special note in a record of 
Mr. Gladstone's life, because it witnessed the appearance 
of his famous work on ' The State in its Relations with the 
Church.' We have seen that he left Oxford before the 
beginning of that Catholic revival which has transfigured 
both the inner spirit and the outward aspect of the Church 
of England. But the revival was now in full strength. 
The ' Tracts for the Times ' were saturating England with 
new influences. The passionate, almost despairing, appeal 
of half-a-dozen gifted and holy men at Oxford had awoke 
a response in every corner of the kingdom. ' We did,' they 
said, ' but light a beacon fire on the summit of a lonely 
hill : and now we are amazed to find the firmament on 
every side red with the light of some responsive flame.' 
The Catholic revival now counted no more enthusiastic 
or more valuable disciple than the young member for 
Newark. The influence of the revival had reached 
him through his friendships, notably with two Fellows 
of Merton — Mr. James Hope, who became Mr. Hope- 
Scott, Q.C., and the Rev. H. E. Manning, afterwards 
Cardinal- Archbishop, 



54 MR. GLADSTONE 

Cardinal Newman, organizing the crusade and reckoning 
up his actual and possible allies, writes on October 2, 1833 : 
1 As to Gladstone, perhaps it would be wrong to ask a young 
man so to commit himself.' But on November 13, he 
records : 'The Duke of Newcastle has joined us ... . 
Gladstone, &c. I suppose these names must not be men- 
tioned.' 

Naturally and profoundly religious, and now steeped in the 
Catholic theology, Mr. Gladstone conceived that those who 
professed the warmest regard for the Church of England, 
and posed as her most strenuous defenders, were inclined 
to base their championship on mistaken grounds, and to 
direct their efforts towards even mischievous ends. To 
supply a more reasonable basis for action, and to lead this 
energy into more profitable channels, were the objects which 
he proposed to himself in his treatise of 1838. The dis- 
tinctive principle of the book was that the State had a 
conscience. This being admitted, the issue was this : 
whether the State, in its best condition, has such a con- 
science as can take cognizance of religious truth and error, 
and in particular whether the State of the United Kingdom 
at that time was, or was not, so far in that condition as to 
be under an obligation to give an active and an exclusive 
support to the established religion of the. country. The 
work attempted to survey the actual state of the relations 
between the State and the Church ; to show from history 
the ground which had been defined for the National 
Church at the Reformation ; and to enquire and determine 
whether the existing state of things was worth preserving 
and defending against encroachment from whatever quarter. 
This question it decided emphatically in the affirmative. 
Faithful to logic and to its theory, the book did not shrink 



RELIGION AND THE STATE 55 

from applying them to the crucial case of the Irish Church. 
It did not disguise the difficulties of the case, for the author 
was alive to the paradox which it involved. But the one 
master idea of the system, that the State as it then stood 
was capable in this age, as it had been in ages long gone 
by, of assuming beneficially a responsibility for the inculca- 
tion of a particular religion, carried him through all. His 
doctrine was, that the Church, as established by law, was 
to be maintained for its truth ; that this was the only 
principle on which it could be properly and permanently 
upheld ; that this principle, if good in England, was good 
also for Ireland ; that truth is of all possessions the most 
precious to the soul of man ; and that to ' remove this 
priceless treasure from the view and the reach of the 
Irish people, would be meanly to purchase their momen- 
tary favour at the expense of their permanent interests, and 
would be a high offence against our own sacred obliga- 
tions.' 

In the task of bringing out the book, Mr. Gladstone 
derived great assistance from his friend Mr. Hope, who 
read and criticized the manuscript, and saw the sheets 
through the press. The following letters refer to this act of 
friendship : 

W. E. Gladstone to J. R. Hope 

House of Commons : July 18, 1838. 

I hope in a day or two to get my colonial information 
sufficiently in form, and then to send you my whole papers. 
If you let them lie just as they are, turning the leaves one by 
one, I think you will not find the manuscript very difficult to 
make out, though it is strangely cut in pieces and patched. I 
have divided it all through into sectiuncides, occupying generally 
from half a page to a whole one. 



56 MR. GLADSTONE 

I hope that its general tendency will meet your approval ; 
but a point about which I am in great doubt, and to which I 
request your particular attention is, whether either the work or 
some of the chapters are not so deficient in clearness and ar- 
rangement as to require being absolutely re-written before they 
can with propriety be published ? Making allowance for any 
obscurity which may arise from its physical state as a MS., I 
hope you will look vigorously at it in this point of view, and 
tell me what you think is the amount of the disease, and the 
proper kind of remedy. I can excuse myself, considering the 
pressure of other engagements, for having written irregularly 
and confusedly upon a subject very new in many of its parts, 
and requiring some abstraction — (at every turn it has brought 
home the truth of Bacon's observation, that politics are of all 
sciences the most immersed in matter. One has to go on detach- 
ing as it were one's soul from clay all the way through) — but 
I should be inexcusable if I were to publish in such a state : 
between my eyes and my business I fear it would be hard for 
me to re-write, but if I could put it into the hands of any other 
person who could, and who would extract from my papers any- 
thing worth having, that might do. I wish very much that 
something should be published by somebody on the subject, 
and that speedily, to begin to draw attention to a subject, on 
which men's minds are so sadly undisciplined. When set in 
motion, the ball will roll, as I anticipate. 

As regards myself, if I go on and publish, I shall be quite 
prepared to find some persons surprised, but this, if it should 
prove so, cannot he helped ; I have not knowingly exaggerated 
anything ; and when a man expects to be washed overboard, he 
must tie himself with a rope to the mast. 

I shall trust to your friendship for fra?ikness in the dis- 
charge of your irksome task. Pray make verbal corrections 
without scruple where they are needed. — Sincerely yours, 

W. E. Gladstone. 

July 21, 1838. 
My dear Hope, — Behold your rashness ! 

Please read Nos. II., V., and VI. first. These, with VIII., 

are ? I thipk, the most important and it js about these that J 



AN AUTHOR'S PERPLEXITIES 57 

am in great fear and doubt whether they may not require re- 
writing ; as, however, we read that chopping old somebody 
made him young, I have some hope for my unfortunate papers, 
which you will find have pretty well undergone that operation. 
Mind to turn the leaves as they lie. — Ever yours, 

W. E. G. 

July 26, 1838. 

Mydear Hope, — I thank you most cordially for your remarks, 
and I rejoice to find that you act so entirely in the spirit I had 
anticipated. I trust you will continue to speak with freedom, 
which is the best compliment as well as the best service you 
can render me. 

I am now likely not to go to Ems, but to have some weeks 
in this country, which I should wish to employ without any loss 
of time in going to work as you direct .... As I said before, 
I think it very probable that you may find that V. and VI. 
require quite as rigorous treatment as II., and I am very 
desirous to set both my mind and eyes at liberty before I go to 
the Continent, which I can now hardly expect to do before the 
first week in September. This interval I trust would suffice — 
unless you find that the other chapters stand in equal need. 

Mahon suggested as a title : ' Church and State considered 
in their connexion.' The defect of this is that I do not much 
consider the Church in its connexion with the State, though 
partially I do ; but it gave me the idea of a modification which 
I think may do : ' The State viewed in its connexion with the 
Church.' 

I entirely concur with your view regarding the necessity of 
care, and of not grudging labour in a matter so important and 
so responsible as an endeavour to raise one of the most momen- 
tous controversies which has ever agitated human opinion. 

Sincerely yours, 

W. E. Gladstone. 

July 30. 
My dear Hope, — Thanks for your letter. I have been 
pretty hare} at work, and have done a good deal, especially 



58 MR. GLADSTONE 

on V. Something yet remains. I must make enquiry about 
the law of excommunication. ... I have made a very stupid 
classification, and have now amended it; instead of faith, 
discipline, and practice, what I meant was, the rule of faith, 
discipline, and the bearing of particular doctrines upon prac- 
tice. ... 

Yours sincerely, 

W. E. G. 

I send back also I. and II. that you may see what I have 
done. 

The work was brought to a successful issue in the 
following autumn. Lord Houghton used to say that Sir 
Robert Peel, on receiving a copy as a gift from his young 
follower, exclaimed with truly official horror : ' With such 
a career before him, why should he write books ? ' But 
more emotional people took a very different view. 

Writing on December 13, 1838, Baron Bunsen says : 'Last 
night at eleven, when I came from the Duke, Gladstone's 
book was lying on my table, having come out at seven 
o'clock. It is the book of the time, a great event — the first 
book since Burke that goes to the bottom of the vital 
question ; far above his party and his time. I sat up till 
after midnight, and this morning I continued until I had 
read the whole. . . Gladstone is the first man in England 
as to intellectual power, and he has heard higher tones than 
anyone else in this land.' 

Writing a few days later to Dr. Arnold, the Baron again 
extols the book, and, while lamenting what he conceives to 
be its author's entanglement in Tractarian traditions, adds : 
' His genius will soon free itself entirely, and fly towards 
Heaven with its own wings.' 

On January 9, 1839, Cardinal Newman writes : 'Glad- 



THE RISING HOPE' 59 

stone's book, you see, is making a sensation.' On the 22nd, 
' The " Times " is again at poor Gladstone. Really I feel as 
if I could do anything for him. I have not read his book, 
but its consequences speak for it. Poor fellow ! it is so 
noble a thing.' 

The book soon reached a third edition, and drew from 
Macaulay that trenchant review in which Mr. Gladstone was 
described, for the infinite gratification of later critics, as the 
'rising hope of the stern and unbending Tories.' There 
ensued some correspondence between the young author 
and his distinguished reviewer, who, writing to him on 
April n, 1839, said : ' Your book itself, and everything that 
I heard about you, though almost all my information came 
— to the honour, I must say, of our troubled times — from 
people very strongly opposed to you in politics, led me to 
regard you with respect and goodwill, and I am truly glad 
that I have succeeded in marking those feelings.' Mean- 
while the author's eyesight had been impaired by hard 
reading. He had eschewed lamps and read entirely by 
candle-light, and the result was injurious. The doctors 
recommended him to make a tour in the South of Europe, 
and he spent the winter of 1838-9 in Rome. In the 
Eternal City he joined his friend, Mr. Henry Manning, 
and together they visited Monsignor, afterwards Cardinal, 
Wiseman at the English College, on the Feast of St. 
Thomas of Canterbury. They attended a solemn Mass in 
honour of the saint, and their places in the missal were found 
for them by a young student of the college called Grant, who 
afterwards became Bishop of Southwark ; a curious conjunc- 
tion of names destined to be heard of again. Among the 
visitors at Rome that winter were the widow and daughters 
of Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, of Hawarden Castle, Flint" 



6o MR. GLADSTONE 

shire. Mr. Gladstone was already acquainted with these 
ladies, having been a friend of Lady Glynne's eldest son 
at Oxford, and having visited him at Hawarden in 1835. 
The visit to Rome threw him much into their society, and 
he became engaged to the elder of Lady Glynne's daughters. 
On July 25, 1839, he was married at Hawarden to Miss 
Catherine Glynne, sister, and in her issue heir, of Sir Stephen 
Glynne, ninth and last baronet of that name. At the same 
time and place, Miss Mary Glynne was married to George 
William, fourth Lord Lyttelton. 

It is worthy of note that by his marriage Mr. Gladstone 
became allied with the house of Grenville, a family of states- 
men which, directly or in its ramifications, had already 
supplied England with four Prime Ministers. Baron Bunsen, 
who made his acquaintance that year, writes that he ' was 
delighted with the man who is some day to govern England 
if his book is not in his way.' In the early days of their 
married life, Mr. and Mrs. William Gladstone lived with 
Lady Glynne, at 13, Carlton House Terrace. Later, they 
lived at 6, Carlton Gardens (made over to them by Sir 
John Gladstone) ; at 13, Carlton House Terrace ; and, 
when Mr. Gladstone was in office, at the official residence 
in Downing Street. In 1856 Mr. Gladstone, who had suc- 
ceeded to his patrimony five years before, bought 11, Carlton 
House Terrace, which was his London house for twenty 
years ; and he subsequently lived for four years at 73, 
Harley Street. During the parliamentary recess, Mr. and 
Mrs. Gladstone divided their time between Fasque, Sir 
John Gladstone's seat in Kincardineshire, and Hawarden 
Castle, which they shared with Mrs. Gladstone's brother, 
Sir Stephen Glynne, till, on his death, it passed into their 
sole possession. 



MARRIED LIFE 6l 

Marriage and domestic cares (for the blessings of the 
man who hath his quiver full were not long withheld from 
him) made little difference in Mr. Gladstone's mode of life. 
He was still the diligent student, the constant debater, and 
the copious writer that he had been at Eton, at Oxford, and 
in the Albany. He was one of a committee which was 
originated by Mr. Gilbert Mathison and met at the lodgings 
of Mr., afterwards Sir Thomas, Acland, in Jenny n Street, to 
concert measures for improving and extending the educa- 
tional machinery of the Church. Among the members of 
this committee were Lord Ashley, afterwards Lord Shaftes- 
bury ; Lord Sandon, afterwards Lord Harrowby ; Winthrop 
Mackworth Praed ; and Henry Nelson Coleridge. Their 
exertions led to the formation of Boards of Education for the 
different dioceses, and the establishment of training-colleges, 
with the double aim of securing religious education for the 
middle classes and the collegiate education of the school- 
masters. 

In 1840 he 'completed beneath the shades of Hagley' 
(the home of Lord and Lady Lyttelton), a treatise on 
'Church Principles Considered in their Results ; ' in which 
he maintained with ingenuity and vigour the visibility 
and authority of the Church, the mathematical certainty 
of the Apostolical Succession, and the nature and efficacy 
of the Sacraments, and vindicated the Church of England 
as the divinely-appointed guardian of Christian truth, alike 
against Popish and Puritan innovations. On ' St. Stephen's 
Day,' 1 840, Cardinal Newman writes : ' Gladstone's book is 
not open to the objections I feared ; it is doctrinaire, and 
(I think) somewhat self-confident ; but it will do good.' 

On the 28th of December, the Rev. Frederick Denison 
Maurice writes thus of Mr. Gladstone and his latest work : 



62 MR. GLADSTONE 

His Aristotelianism is, it strikes me, more deeply fixed in 
him than before, and, on that account, I do not see how he can 
ever enter enough into the feeling and truth of Rationalism 
to refute it. His notion of attacking the Evangelicals by saying, 
* Press your opinions to their results, and they become Rational- 
istic,' is ingenious, and wrought out, I think, with great skill 
and an analytical power for which I had not given him credit ; 
but after all it -seems to me an argument which is fitter for the 
Courts than for a theological controversy. 

In 1840, in a debate on our relations with China, Mr. 
Gladstone crossed swords with Macaulay, in a speech re- 
markable for its eloquent expression of anxiety that the arms 
of England should never be employed in unrighteous enter- 
prises. 

At Midsummer, 1840, Mr. Gladstone, accompanied by 
Lord Lyttelton, went down to Eton to examine the candi- 
dates for the Newcastle Scholarship, founded by his political 
patron the fifth Duke. He characteristically set a passage 
from St. Augustine in the paper on divinity ; and one of those 
whom he examined writes : ' I have a vivid and delightful 
impression of Mr. Gladstone sitting in what was then called 
the Library, on an estrade on which the head master 
habitually sate, above which was placed, about 1840, the 
bust of the Duke of Newcastle and the names of the New- 
castle Scholars. . . . When he gave me a Virgil and asked 
me to translate Georg. ii. 475, seq., I was pleasantly surprised 
by the beautiful eye turning on me with the question, " What 
is the meaning of sacra fero ? " and his look of approval 
when I said, "Carry the sacred vessels in the procession." 

1 1 wish you to understand that Mr. Gladstone appeared 
not to me only, but to others, as a gentleman wholly unlike 
other examiners or school people. It was not as a politician 
that we admired him, but as a refined Churchman, ■ deep 



THE WHIGS IN DIFFICULTIES 63 

also in political philosophy (so we conjectured from his 
quoting Burke on the Continual State retaining its identity 
though made up of passing individuals), deep also in lofty 
poetry, as we guessed from his giving us, as a theme for 
original Latin verse, " the poet's eye in a fine frenzy," &c. 
When he spoke to us in " Pop " as an honorary member, we 
were charmed and affected emotionally : his voice was low 
and sweet, his manner was that of an elder cousin : he 
seemed to treat us with unaffected respect ; and to be 
treated with respect by a man is the greatest delight for a 
boy. It was the golden time of "retrograding transcen- 
dentalism," as the hard heads called the Anglo-Catholic 
symphony. He seemed to me then an apostle of unworldly 
ardour, bridling his life.' 

In this examination Mr. Gladstone had the satisfac- 
tion of awarding the Newcastle medal to Henry Fitzmau- 
rice Hallam, the youngest brother of his own beloved 
friend. 

At the beginning of 1841 troubles were thickening 
round the Whig Ministry. The Budget showed a deficit of 
nearly two millions. A proposal to meet this deficit by an 
alteration in the sugar-duties was defeated in the House of 
Commons. Then, in despair, Lord John Russell invited 
the House to consider the state of the law with regard to 
the trade in corn. He proposed a fixed duty of eight 
shillings per quarter on wheat, and proportionately dimi- 
nished rates on rye, barley, and oats. Sir Robert Peel 
met this proposal by a motion of want of confidence, 
levelled against the whole financial policy, and especially 
against this proposal of a fixed duty in lieu of a sliding 
scale. The vote was carried, and the Government deter- 
mined to dissolve. On June 22 Parliament was prorogued 



64 MR. GLADSTONE 

by the Queen in person ; the Whig Ministers thus seeking, 
as Lord Shaftesbury wrote in his diary, to ' hide their own 
hoary profligacy under her young virtue.' The Dissolution 
followed next day. 

The general election resulted in a Tory majority of 
eighty. Mr. Gladstone was again returned for Newark, with 
Lord John Manners, afterwards Duke of Rutland, for his 
colleague. The new Parliament met in August. Ministers 
were defeated on the Address and resigned, and Sir Robert 
Peel formed an Administration, in which Mr. Gladstone was 
of course included. 

There is a tradition that, having already conceived a 
lively interest in the ecclesiastical and agrarian problems of 
Ireland, he had set his affections on the Chief Secretaryship. 
But Sir Robert Peel, a consummate judge of administrative 
capacity, had discerned his young friend's financial aptitude, 
and the member for Newark became Vice-President of the 
Board of Trade and Master of the Mint, and was sworn of 
the Privy Council. Speaking from the hustings at his re- 
election on taking office, he proclaimed that the British 
farmer might rely on adequate protection for his industry, 
and that this protection was to be secured by a sliding 
scale. The duties were to be reduced and the system im- 
proved, but the principle was to be maintained. 

In the autumn of this year the Anglican Bishopric at 
Jerusalem was set up. Mr. Gladstone dined with Baron 
Bunsen on the King of Prussia's birthday, when we learn, 
on the unimpeachable authority of Lord Shaftesbury, that 
he 'stripped himself of a part of his Puseyite garments, 
spoke like a pious man, rejoiced in the bishopric of 
Jerusalem, and proposed the health of Alexander (the new 
Bishop of that see). This is delightful, for he is a good 



TliE BOARD OF TRADE 65 

tnan, a clever man, and an industrious man.' Baron Bunsen, 
describing the same occasion, writes : ' Never was heard a 
more exquisite speech. It flowed like a gentle and translu- 
cent stream. . . . We drove back to town in the clearest 
starlight ; Gladstone continuing with unabated animation to 
pour forth his harmonious thoughts in melodious tone.' 

On November 6, 1841, Mr. Gladstone writes thus from 
Whitehall to Mr. Hope : 

Amidst public business quite sufficient for a man of my 
compass, I have during the whole of the week perforce been 
carrying on with the Bishop of London and with Bunsen a 
correspondence on, and inquisition into, the Jerusalem design, 
until I almost reel and stagger under it. 

On November 20 he writes : 

I am ready individually to brave misconstruction for the 
sake of union with any Christian men, provided the terms of 
the union be not contrary to sound principle ; and perhaps in 
this respect might go further, at least in one of the possible 
directions, than you. But to declare the living constitution of 
a Christian Church to be of secondary moment is of course in 
my view equivalent to a denial of a portion of the faith — and I 
think you will say it is a construction which cannot fairly be 
put upon the design, as far as it exists in fixed rules and articles. 
It is one thing to attribute this in the way of unfavourable sur- 
mise, or as an apprehension of ultimate developments — it is 
another to publish it to the world as a character ostentatiously 
assumed. 

So even amid the engrossing cares of a new office, the Vice- 
President of the Board of Trade retained his old interest in 
ecclesiastical concerns. 

On April 6, 1842, he writes thus to his publisher, Mr. 
Murray : 

Amidst the pressure of more urgent affairs, I have held no 
consultation with you regarding my books and the sale or no 

F 



66 MR. GLADSTONE 

sale of them. As to the third edition of the 'State in its 
Relations,' I should think the remaining copies had better be 
got rid of in whatever summary or ignominious mode you may 
deem best. They must be dead beyond recall. As to the 
others, I do not know whether the season of the year has at all 
revived the demand ; and would suggest to you whether it would 
be well to advertize them a little. I do not think they find 
their way much into the second-hand shops. With regard to 
the fourth edition, I do not know whether it would be well to 
procure any review or notice of it, and I am not a fair judge of 
its merits even in comparison with the original form of the 
work ; but my idea is, that it is less defective both in the 
theoretical and in the historical development, and ought to be 
worth the notice of those who deemed the earlier editions worth 
their notice and purchase : that it would really put a reader in 
possession of the view it was intended to convey, which I fear is 
more than can with any truth be said of its predecessors. I 
am not, however, in any state of anxiety or impatience : and I 
am chiefly moved to refer these suggestions to your judgment 
from perceiving that the fourth edition is as yet far from having 
cleared itself. 

The position which Mr. Gladstone now occupied in 
the view of his contemporaries is well indicated in the 
following letter of Sir Stafford Northcote, afterwards Lord 
Iddesleigh, written in the same year : 

There is but one statesman of the present day in whom I 
feel entire confidence, and with whom I cordially agree, and that 
statesman is Mr. Gladstone. I look upon him as the represen- 
tative of the party, scarcely developed as yet, though secretly 
forming and strengthening, which will stand by all that is dear 
and sacred in my estimation, in the struggle which I believe will 
come ere very long between good and evil, order and disorder, 
the Church and the world, and I see a very small band collect- 
ing round him, and ready to fight manfully under his leading. 

An inevitable change is from this time to be traced in 



THE REVISED TARIFF 67 

the topics of Mr. Gladstone's parliamentary speaking. 
Instead of discoursing on the corporate conscience of the 
State and the endowments of the Church, the importance 
of Christian education, and the theological unfitness of the 
Jews to sit in Parliament, he is solving business-like 
problems about foreign tariffs and the exportation of 
machinery ; waxing eloquent over the regulation of 
railways, and a graduated tax on corn ; subtle on the 
monetary merits of half-farthings, and great in the mysterious 
lore of quassia and cocculus indicus. 

In 1842 he had a principal hand in the preparation 
of the revised tariff, by which duties were abolished or 
sensibly diminished in the case of twelve hundred duty- 
paying articles. In defending the new scheme he spoke 
incessantly, and amazed the House by his mastery of detail, 
his intimate acquaintance with the commercial needs of the 
country, and his inexhaustible power of exposition. On 
March 14 Mr. Greville writes : 'Gladstone has already 
displayed a capacity which makes his admission into the 
Cabinet indispensable.' A commercial Minister had 
appeared on the scene, and the shade of Huskisson had 
revived. Yet amid all the excitements and interests 
of office, he could turn aside the discourse on social 
and educational questions with as much earnestness and 
eloquence as if they, and only they, possessed his mind. 
In January, 1843, he spoke at the opening of the Collegiate 
Institution of Liverpool, and delivered a powerful plea for 
the better education of the middle classes. 

This year — 1843 — was destined to witness a great ad- 
vance in Mr. Gladstone's progress towards the front rank 
of statesmen. Lord Ripon left the Board of Trade for the 
Board of Control, and Mr. Gladstone, succeeding him as 

f 2 



68 MR. GLADSTONE 

President of the Board of Trade, became a Member" of 
the Cabinet at the age of thirty-three. He was now 
master in name, as he had long been in reality, of his 
own department. His appointment as President of the 
Board bears date June 10, 1843, and he has recorded the fact 
that ' the very first opinion which he ever was called upon 
to give in Cabinet,' was an opinion in favour of withdrawing 
the Bill providing Education for Children in Factories : to 
which vehement opposition was offered by the Dissenters 
on the ground that it was too favourable to the Established 
Church. 

His position now seemed assured ; yet on October 23, 
1843, he writes to a friend : ' Uneasy, in my opinion, must 
be the position of every member of Parliament who thinks 
independently in these times, or in any that are likely to 
succeed them ; and in proportion as a man's course of 
thought deviates from the ordinary lines, his seat must 
less and less resemble a bed of roses.' 

The following curious extract from the diaxy of Lord 
Malmesbury belongs to the period which we are now 
approaching : 

November 7, 1844. — Met Mr. Gladstone .... a man who is 
much spoken of as one who will come to the front. We were 
disappointed at his appearance, which is that of a Roman Catholic 
ecclesiastic ; but he is very agreeable. 

On December 29, 1844, in a letter to his friend Arch- 
deacon, afterwards Bishop, Wilberforce, Mr. Gladstone 
writes thus about the prospects of the Church of England : 
.' I rejoice to see that your views are on the whole hopeful. 
For my part I heartily go along with you. The fabric con- 
solidates itself more and more, even while the earthquake 
rocks it ; for, with a thousand drawbacks and deductions, 



THE MAYNOOTH GRANT 6g 

love grows larger, zeal warmer, truth firmer among us. It 
makes the mind sad to speculate upon the question how 
much better all might have been ; but our mourning should 
be turned into joy and thankfulness when we think also how 
much worse it was. It seems to be written for our learning 
and use : " He will be very gracious to thee at the voice of 
thy cry ; when He shall hear it He will answer thee. And 
though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the 
water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into 
a corner any more ; but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. 
And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, ' This 
is the way, walk ye in it.' " ' 

This letter was written on the eve of a momentous change, 
in the writer's secular position. 

In the Session of 1844 Sir Robert Peel, in response to 
the requests of Irish members, had given an undertaking that 
the Government would apply themselves to the question 
of academical education in Ireland, with a view to bringing 
it more nearly to the standard of England and Scotland, 
increasing its amount and improving its quality. In ful- 
filment of this pledge, the Government, at the opening of 
the Session of 1845, proposed simultaneously to establish 
non-sectarian colleges in Ireland, and to increase the grant 
to Maynooth. The College of Maynooth, intended for the 
education of Roman Catholic priests and laymen, had fallen 
into poverty and decay. With a view to propitiating Irish 
sentiment, the Government proposed to increase the grant 
already made to the college from 9,000/. to 30,000/. a year. 
This grant was not to be subject to an annual vote ; and the 
repairs of the college were to be executed by the Board of 
Works. These proposals placed Mr. Gladstone in a position 
of great difficulty. The choice before him was to support 



70 MR. GLADSTONE 

Sir Robert Peel's measure, or else to retire from his 
Government into a position of complete isolation, and, 
what was more than this, subject to a grave and general 
imputation of political eccentricity. In this strait, Mr. 
Gladstone sought counsel from his friends. Archdeacon 
Manning and Mr. Hope strongly urged him to remain 
in the Cabinet, where his presence and influence would be 
of immense value to the Church. Lord Stanley warned 
him that resignation must be followed by resistance to the 
proposal of the Government, and that this would involve 
him in the storms of religious agitation. Mr. Gladstone 
persisted in his intention, but he plainly stated that his 
resignation would not of necessity be followed by resistance 
to the proposal about Maynooth. 

My whole purpose was to place myself in a position 

in which I should be free to consider my course without being 

liable to any just suspicion on the ground of personal interest. 

It is not profane if I now say, 'with a great price obtai7ied I 

this freedom? The political association in which I stood was 

to me at the time the alpha and omega of public life. The 

Government of Sir Robert Peel was believed to be of immovable 

strength. My place, as President of the Board of Trade, was 

at the very kernel of its most interesting operations ; for it was 

in progress, from year to year, with continually waxing 

courage, towards the emancipation of industry, and therein 

towards the accomplishment of another great and blessed 

work of public justice. Giving up what I highly prized, aware 

that 

male sarta 

Gratia nequicquam coit, et rescinditur, 

I felt myself open to the charge of being opinionated, and wanting 
in deference to really great authorities ; and I could not bu 
know that I should inevitably be regarded as fastidious and 
fanciful, fitter for a dreamer, or possibly a schoolman, than for 
the active purposes of public life in a busy and moving age. 



A CASE OF CONSCIENCE 7 1 

In January, 1845, Mr. Gladstone resigned, not, however, 
before he had completed a second 'revised- tariff,' carrying 
considerably further the principles on which he had acted in 
the earlier revision of 1842. In the debate on the Address 
at the opening of the Session he explained his retirement. 
He stated that it had reference to the intentions of the 
Government with respect to Maynooth ; that those intentions 
pointed to a measure at variance with the system which he had 
maintained, 'in a form the most detailed and deliberate,' in a 
published treatise ; that he thought that those who had borne 
such solemn testimony to a particular view of a great con- 
stitutional question ' ought not to be parties responsible for 
proposals which involved a material departure from it.' 
The purpose of his retirement was to place himself in a 
position to form not only an honest, but likewise an 
independent and an unsuspected judgment, on the plan to 
be submitted by the Government. 

Mr. Gladstone's retirement from the Ministry drew 
expressions of lively regret, together with flattering testi- 
monies to his character and abilities, alike from his late chief 
and from the leader of the Opposition. Having, by retiring, 
established his perfect freedom of action, he met the pro- 
posals of the Government in a sympathetic spirit. He 
defended the grant to Maynooth in a long speech full of 
ingenious argumentation, and urged with great force that, if 
the State was to give ' a more indiscriminating support ' than 
previously to various forms of religious opinion, it would 
be improper and unjust to exclude the Church of Rome in 
Ireland from participating in its benefits. 

No one who has the slightest acquaintance with the 
tone and temper of the House of Commons needs to 
be told that Mr. Gladstone's resignation was regarded by 



72 MR. GLADSTONE 

the mass of his party with angry amazement. Here was 
a young and successful statesman who had renounced an 
mportant post in the Cabinet sooner than be responsible 
for legislation inconsistent with his earlier opinion, though 
now, as a private member, he was ready to support the very 
Bill which he would not be a party to introducing. This 
was an act of parliamentary Quixotism too eccentric to be 
intelligible. It argued a fastidious delicacy of conscience, 
and a nice sense of political propriety, so opposed to the 
sordid selfishness and unblushing tergiversation of the ordi- 
nary place-hunter as to be almost offensive. 

The possessor of this kind of supernatural virtue could 
. scarcely be popular with the slaves of party, the docile 
disciples of the Carlton and the Whip ; and by them the 
member for Newark was generally voted whimsical, fantastic, 
impracticable ; a man whose ' conscience was so tender 
that he would never go straight ' ; a visionary not to be 
relied on or reckoned with— in brief, exactly that type of 
character and intellect which is to the political manager 
a powerful irritant, and to the hacks whom he manipu- 
lates a sealed and hopeless mystery. That typical man of 
the world, Mr. Charles Greville, writes on February 6 : 
'Gladstone's explanation was ludicrous. Everybody said 
that he had only succeeded in showing that his resignation 
was quite uncalled for/ This probably expresses the 
prevailing sentiment, and Mr. Gladstone's retirement, by im- 
pairing his reputation for common sense, threatened serious 
and lasting injury to his political career. But the whirligig 
of time brought its revenges even more swiftly than usual. 
A conjunction of events arose in which he was indispensable. 
The practical side of his genius was destined to repair the 
rriischief whicti the speculative si4e had wrought ; but for 



SEARCHINGS OF HEART 73 

the moment the speculative sidc~ was uppermost, as the 
following letters show : 

The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone to J. R. Hope. 

13 Carlton House Terrace : 
Private. Thursday night, May 15, '45. 

My dear Hope, — In 1838 you lent me that generous and 
powerful aid in the preparation of my book for the press, to 
which I owe it that the defects and faults of the work fell short 
of absolutely disqualifying it for its purpose. From that time 
I began to form not only high but definite anticipations of the 
services which you would render to the Church in the deep and 
searching processes through which she has passed and yet has 
to pass. These anticipations, however, did not rest only upon 
my own wishes, or on the hopes which benefits already received 
might have led me to form. In the commencement of 1840, 
in the very room where we talked to-night, you voluntarily 
and somewhat solemnly tendered to me the assurance that you 
would at all times be ready to co-operate with me in further- 
ance of the welfare of the Church, and you placed no limit 
upon the extent of such co-operation. I had no title to expect 
and had not expected a promise so heart-stirring, but I set 
upon it a value scarcely to be described, and it ever after 
entered as an element of the first importance into all my views 
of the future course of public affairs in their bearing" upon 
religion. 

After speaking of the ' gigantic opportunities of good or 
evil to the Church which the course of events seems certain 
to open up,' Mr. Gladstone continues : 

If the time shall ever come (which I look upon as extremely 
uncertain, but I think if it comes at all it will be before the 
lapse of many years) when I am called upon to use any of 
those opportunities, it would be my duty to look to you for 
aid, under the promise to which I have referred, unless in the 
meantime you shall as deliberately and solemnly withdraw 



74 MR. GLADSTONE 

that promise as you first made it. I will not describe at length 
how your withdrawal of it would increase that sense of deso- 
lation which, as matters now stand, often approaches to being 
intolerable. I only speak of it as a matter of fact, and I am 
anxious you should know that I look to it as one of the very 
weightiest kind, under a title which you have given me. You 
would of course cancel it upon the conviction that it involved 
sin upon your part : with anything less than that conviction 
I do not expect that you will cancel it ; and I am, on the 
contrary, persuaded that you will struggle against pain, depres- 
sion, disgust, and even against doubt touching the very root of 
our position, for the fulfilment of any actual duties which the 
post you actually occupy in the Church of God, taken in con- 
nexion with your faculties and attainments, may assign to you. 
• ■ ■ • ■ 

You have given me lessons that I have taken thankfully. 
Believe I do it in the payment of a debt, if I tell you that 
your mind and intellect, to which I look up with reverence 
under a consciousness of immense inferiority, are much under 
the dominion, whether it be known or not known to yourself, of 
an agency lower than their own, more blind, more variable, 
more difficult to call inwardly to account and make to answer 
for itself — the agency, I mean, of painful and disheartening 
impressions — impressions which have an unhappy and powerful 
tendency to realize the very worst of what they picture. Of 
this fact I have repeatedly noted the signs in you. 

• • • • i 

I should have been glad to have got your advice on some 
points connected with the Maynooth question on Monday next, 
but I will not introduce here any demand upon your kindness ; 
the claims of this letter on your attention, be they great or 
small, and you are their only judge, rest upon wholly different 
grounds. God bless and guide you, and prosper the work of 
your hands. — Ever your affectionate friend, 

W. E. Gladstone. 

On July 23, 1845, Mr. Gladstone writes thus to the 
same friend : 



THE IRISH CHURCH 75 

F Ireland is likely to find this country and Parliament so much 
employment for years to come, that I feel rather oppressively 
an obligation to try and see it with my own eyes instead of 
using those of other people, according to the limited measure 
of my means. Now your company would be so very valuable 
as well as agreeable to me, that I am desirous to know whether 
you are at all inclined to entertain the idea of devoting the 
month of September, after the meeting in Edinburgh, to a 
working tour in Ireland with me — eschewing all grandeur, and 
taking little account even of scenery, compared with the purpose 
of looking from close quarters at the institutions for religion 
and education of the country, and at the character of the people. 
It seems ridiculous to talk of supplying the defects of second- 
hand information by so short a trip ; but though a longer time 
would be much better, yet even a very contracted one does 
much when it is added to an habitual though indirect know- 
ledge. 

Subsequent events make it a matter of regret that this 
projected tour never took place. 

Meanwhile it is worthy of remark that while he 
was ready to deal more generously than before with the 
Roman Catholics in Ireland, his faith in the Irish Esta- 
blishment was becoming less robust. On August 16 in 
this year he wrote to his friend Bishop Wilberforce : ' I 
am sorry to express my apprehension that the Irish Church 
is not in a large sense efficient ; the working results of the 
last ten years have disappointed me. It may be answered 
Have faith in the ordinance of God ; but then I must see the 
seal and signature, and these how can I separate from 
ecclesiastical descent? The title, in short, is questioned, 
and vehemently, not only by the Radicalism of the day, but 
by the Roman Bishops, who claim to hold the succession of 
St. Patrick, and this claim has been alive all along from the 
Reformation, so that lapse of years does nothing against it. 



J6 MR. GLADSTONE 

In the autumn of this year Mr. Gladstone went to 
Munich and paid his first visit to Dr. Dollinger. He 
remained there a week, in daily converse with the great 
theologian, and laid the foundation of a friendship which 
was sustained by correspondence and repeated visits, and 
was interrupted only by the doctor's death in 1890. 

On October 30, 1845, ne writes from Baden-Baden : 

1 No religion and no politics until we meet,' and that more 
than ever uncertain ! Hard terms, my dear Hope ; do not 
complain if I devote to them the scraps or ends of my fourth 
page. But now let me rebuke myself, and say, No levity about 
great and solemn things. There are degrees of pressure from 
within that it is impossible to resist. The Church in which 
our lot has been cast has come to the birth, and the question 
is, will she have strength to bring forth ? I am persuaded it is 
written in God's decrees that she shall ; and that after deep 
repentance and deep suffering a high and peculiar part remains 
for her in healing the wounds of Christendom. Nor is there 
any man — I cannot be silent — whose portion in her work is 
more clearly marked out for him than yours. But you have, if 
not your revenge, your security. I must keep my word. God 
bless and guide you. 

Yours affectionately, 

W. E. G. 

13 C. H. Terrace : 
Dec. 7, Second Sunday in Advent, 1845. 

My dear Hope, — I need hardly tell you I am deeply moved 
by your note, and your asking my prayers. I trust you give what 
you ask. As for them, you have long had them ; in private and 
in public, and in the hour of Holy Communion. But you must 
not look for anything from them ; only they cannot do any 
harm. Under the merciful dispensation of the Gospel, while 
the prayer of the righteous availeth much, the petition of the 
unworthy does not return in evils on the head of those for whom 
it i§ offered, 



RELIGIOUS PROJECTS ?7 

Your speaking of yourself in low terms is the greatest kind- 
ness to me. It is with such things before my eyes that I learn 
in some measure by comparison my own true position. 

Now let me use a friend's liberty on a point of practice. Do 
you not so far place yourself in rather a false position by with- 
drawing in so considerable a degree from those active external 
duties in which you were so conspicuous ? Is rest in that depart- 
ment really favourable to religious enquiry ? You said to me you 
preferred at this time selecting temporal works : are we not in 
this difficulty, that temporal works, so far as mere money is con- 
cerned, are nowadays relatively overdone ? But if you mean 
temporal works otherwise than in money, I would to God we 
could join hands upon a subject of the kind which interested you 
much two years ago. And now I am going to speak of what 
concerns myself more than you, as needing it more. 

The desire we then both felt passed off, as far as I am con- 
cerned, into a plan of asking only a donation and subscription. 
Now it is very difficult to satisfy the demands of duty to the 
poor by money alone. On the other hand, it is extremely hard 
for me (and I suppose possibly for you) to give them much in 
the shape of time and thought, for both with me are already 
tasked up to and beyond their powers, and by matters which I 
cannot displace. I much wish we could execute some plan 
which, without demanding much time, would entail the dis- 
charge of some humble and humbling offices. ... If you 
thought with me — and I do not see why you should not, except 
that to assume the reverse is paying myself a compliment — let 
us go to work, as in the young days of the college plan, but 
with a more direct and less ambitious purpose. ... In answer 
give me advice and help if you can ; and when we meet to talk 
of these things, it will be more refreshing than metaphysical or 
semi-metaphysical argument. All that part of my note which 
refers to questions internal to yourself is not meant to be 
answered except in your own breast. 

And now may the Lord grant that, as heretofore, so ever we 
may walk in His holy house as friends, and know how good a 
thing it is to dwell together in unity 1 But at all events may 



78 MR. GLADSTONE 

He, as He surely will, compass you about with His presence 
and by His holy angels, and cause you to awake up after His 
likeness, and to be satisfied with it. 

Ever your affectionate friend, 

W. E. Gladstone. 

In the winter of this year Mr. Gladstone sustained a 
slight but permanent injury. Though not a passionate 
sportsman, he was fond of shooting. His gun exploded while 
he was loading it, and so shattered the first finger of his left 
hand that amputation was necessary. 



79 



CHAPTER IV 

Free Trade — The Repeal of the Corn Laws — Retires from the repre- 
sentation of Newark — Returned for the University of Oxford — 
Growth and transition — Loss of a child — The Gorham judgment — 
Secession of friends. 

How patient of inevitable ill, 

Yet how determinate in their righteous will ! 

Such was a poet's most just description of the English 
people at a crisis when their patience had been strained to 
bursting-point. Towards the year 1845 Englishmen were 
awaking to the fact that a great part of the ' ill ' under 
which they laboured was in no sense ' inevitable,' but was 
the direct and necessary consequence of legislation which 
made their principal form of food dear and difficult to 
procure, even when nature and Providence supplied it with 
the utmost bounty. What Lord Beaconsfield called the 
' clear perception and terse eloquence ' of Mr. Charles 
Villiers enforced this truth upon the attention of Parliament ; 
and the Anti-Corn- Law League, working by an admirable 
organization, and teaching by the mouth of two of the 
greatest orators who ever spoke the English language, drove 
the lesson home to the conscience and intellect of their 
countrymen, already well prepared for it by the sharp disci- 
pline of physical privation. The agitation had now been 



gO MR. GLADSTONE 

in progress fof Some ten years, and for the moment it 
seemed to be losing energy. Its fertility of resource was a 
little exhausted ; its reiterated appeals fell with less than 
their former effect upon the public ear. A series of good 
harvests had rendered the evils of restrictive legislation 
more endurable ; and Sir Robert Peel, in spite of some 
mutinous murmurs, had closed the Session of 1845 with an 
overwhelming majority in both Houses. 

Thus all seemed to be going well with the Government, 
when an unusual phenomenon was noted by readers of 
the newspapers. Four Cabinet Councils were held in 
one week. Obviously the Government were in difficulties. 
What those difficulties were it was not hard to guess. In 
the previous autumn it had become known that, after a 
long season of sunless wet, the potatoes had everywhere 
been attacked by an obscure disease. The failure of 
this crop meant an Irish famine. The steps suggested 
to meet this impending calamity were strange enough. 
The head of the English peerage recommended the poor 
to rely on curry-powder as a nutritious and satisfying food. 
Another duke thought that the Government could show no 
favour to a population almost in a state of rebellion, but 
that individuals might get up a subscription. A noble lord, 
harmonizing materialism and faith, urged the Government 
to encourage the provision of salt fish, and at the same 
time to appoint a day of public acknowledgment of 
our dependence on Divine goodness. The council of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, numbering some of the wealthiest 
noblemen and squires in England, were not ashamed to 
lecture the labourers on the sustaining properties of thrice- 
boiled bones. 

Amid these conflicting counsels, Sir Robert Peel took a 



THE CORN LAWS 8 1 

bold and sagacious line. He urged upon his colleagues 
that all restrictions on the importation of food should be at 
once suspended. He was supported by only three members 
of his Cabinet. All that the rest would consent to do was 
to appoint a commission, consisting of heads of Irish 
departments, with powers to relieve distress and provide 
employment in the event of a sudden outbreak of famine. 

The decisive step came from the opposite camp. 
Writing from Edinburgh, on November 22, to the electors 
of the City of London, Lord John Russell announced 
his conversion to total and immediate repeal of the 
Corn Laws. This letter of course confirmed Sir Robert 
Peel in his views as to the duty of the Government ; but 
he had to cope with incurable dissensions in his Cabinet. 
Lord Stanley and the Duke of Buccleuch resigned ; and on 
December 5 Sir Robert apprised the Queen that he could 
no longer carry on the Government. The task of forming 
an Administration was offered to, and after a struggle de- 
clined by, Lord John Russell, and on December 20 Sir Robert 
Peel resumed office. Lord Stanley refused to re-enter 
the Government, and his place as Secretary of State for 
the Colonies was offered to and accepted by Mr. Gladstone. 
His return to the Cabinet cost the young Minister 
his seat. Hitherto he had sat for Newark as the Duke 
of Newcastle's nominee. The Duke was the staunchest 
of Protectionists. He turned his own son, Lord Lincoln, 
out of the representation of Nottinghamshire for accept- 
ing office under Sir Robert Peel, and he naturally showed 
no mercy to the brilliant but wayward politician whom 
his favour had made member for Newark. Mr. Glad- 
stone therefore did not offer himself for re-election on 
taking office, and he remained outside the House of 

G 



82 MR. GLADSTONE 

Commons during the great struggle of the coining year. 
It was a curious irony of fate which excluded him from 
Parliament at this crisis ; for it seems unquestionable that 
he was the most advanced Free-trader in Sir Robert Peel's 
Cabinet. There are indeed some who believe that Sir 
Robert's conversion was in some measure accelerated by 
the representations of his younger colleague. 

Mr. Gladstone's keen intelligence, no longer concerned 
exclusively with theological problems, but exercised in the 
commonplace business of the Board of Trade, had long 
been tending towards freedom of commerce. After resign- 
ing office at the beginning of 1845, ^ e na< ^ published a 
pamphlet on ' Recent Commercial Legislation,' in which he 
deduced from a survey of recent reductions of duties, and 
their results on revenue and trade, the conclusion that 
all materials of industry should, as far as possible, be set 
free from legal charges. The doctrine thus applied to the 
raw material of labour gained cogency and impressiveness 
when applied to food. Throughout the Session of 1846, 
in spite of departmental duties at the Colonial Office, he 
was constantly employed in the preparation and completion 
of the great measure of the year. His singular combination 
of intellectual shrewdness with commercial knowledge did 
much to conduct the repeal of the Corn Laws through a des- 
perate struggle to a successful issue. On June 25, 1846, the 
Corn-Bill was read a third time in the House of Lords. 

On the same day the Government was beaten in the 
House of Commons on the second reading of a Coercion 
Bill for Ireland. Sir Robert Peel quitted office for ever, 
' leaving a name execrated,' as he said, ' by every monopo- 
list, but remembered with expressions of good-will in those 
places which are the abodes of men whose lot it is to labour 



THE REPRESENTATION OF OXFORD 8$ 

and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow.' 
He was succeeded by Lord John Russell at the head of a 
Whig Administration. 

Early in 1847, it was announced that one of the two 
members for the University of Oxford intended to retire at 
the general election. Mr. Gladstone, who was regarded 
alike by his contemporaries at Oxford, by men senior to 
himself in the University, and by those who had come 
after him, with feelings of enthusiastic admiration, was 
proposed for the vacant seat. The representation of the 
University had been pronounced by Canning to be the 
most coveted prize of public life, and Mr. Gladstone has 
himself confessed that he ' desired it with an almost 
passionate fondness.' In his address to the electors, he 
avowed that in the earlier part of his public life he had 
been an advocate for the exclusive support of the national 
religion by the State. But it had been in vain. ' I found 
that scarcely a year passed without the adoption of some 
fresh measure involving the national recognition and the 
national support of various forms of religion, and, in par- 
ticular, that a recent and fresh provision had been made for 
the propagation from a public chair of Arian or Socinian 
doctrines. The question remaining for me was whether, 
aware of the opposition of the English people, I should 
set down as equal to nothing, in a matter primarily con- 
nected not with our own but with their priesthood, the 
wishes of the people of Ireland ; and whether I should 
avail myself of the popular feeling in regard to the Roman 
Catholics for the purpose of enforcing against them a 
system which we had ceased by common consent to enforce 
against Arians — a system, above all, of which I must say 
that it never can be conformable to policy, to justice or 

g 2 



84 MR. GLADSTONE 

even to decency, when it has become avowedly partial 
and one-sided in its application.' On the eve of the 
election he wrote to his old friend and tutor, Dr. Charles 
Wordsworth, whom he had just induced to take the 
Wardenship of Trinity College, Glenalmond : 

' I am desirous, and by God's help determined, to leave 
at least a recollection upon the minds of men in your 
position ; and the more so because I see plainly that this 
is nearly, if it be not quite, the last election at which you 
will have the power to exercise a choice as to prospective 
Church policy.' 

Dr. Moberly, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, wrote thus, 
on July 8, to a doubtful voter : 

For my own part, I certainly disapprove of Gladstone's vote 
on ' the Godless colleges' (in Ireland) ; and I am not sure, even 
though I acknowledge the difficulties of the case, whether I 
approve of that respecting Maynooth ; but I feel that I am not so 
specifically called on to reward or punish individual votes, as to 
select the deepest, truest, most attached, most effective advocate 
for the Church and Universities in coming, and, probably, very 
serious dangers. I think your correspondence with Gladstone's 
committee has probably done great good. It is very useful that 
Gladstone should know that there are those who are not 
satisfied with some of his past acts ; but surely you will not 
press this hitherto useful course to the extreme result of refrain- 
ing from voting. 

Again, on July 20 : 

At this moment, I believe it to be the question whether 
Gladstone shall be placed in a position of political strength and 
independence, by being elected for the University, or whether 
he shall cease to be a public man altogether. ... If Oxford 
will not have him, none will ; and we shall simply have 
discarded, not from our own representation only, but from the 
political service of the Church and country, the man who, in 



THE CONTEST AT OXFORD 85 

this generation, has most ability, and willingness, and credit to 
serve them effectually. But I do not despair of you yet. The 
election will certainly be a very narrowly decided one. 

To the same effect the Rev. F. D. Maurice : 

If I had a vote for the University I should certainly give it 
to Mr. Gladstone. I do not express this opinion hastily ; but 
after endeavouring to consider the subject on all sides, and with 
some inclinations towards a different conclusion. . . . Mr. 
Gladstone supported the Dissenting Chapels Bill, supported 
the grant to Maynooth even against the doctrines of his own 
book. Both charges are true ; and hereby I think he showed, 
whether he was right or wrong, that he was an honest man, no 
disciple of expediency ; and that he really could distinguish, 
and had courage to own the distinction, between the tem- 
porary and the eternal, between that which is of Heaven 
and that which is of earth. . . . Mr. Gladstone gave up place 
that he might confess what he need not have confessed, what it 
would have done him good with his Oxford constituents not 
to have confessed. Whether he was right or wrong about 
Maynooth, this was the reverse of following expediency ; it was 
acting upon principle. It is a kind of principle which you have 
need of at Oxford ; it is the very principle which saves a man 
from becoming the slave of circumstances. 

Parliament was dissolved on July 23, 1847. The 
nomination at Oxford took place on July 29. Mr., after- 
wards Lord, Coleridge was the indefatigable secretary 
of Mr. Gladstone's committee. Mr. Hope-Scott has left 
it on record that Mrs. Gladstone was a potent canvasser. 
Sir Robert Peel went down to vote for his colleague. 
The venerable Dr. Routh, then nearly ninety-two years 
old, emerged from his seclusion at Magdalen College 
to support a candidate whose theology was congenial to 
his own. At the close of the poll, Sir Robert Inglis, 
that fine type of prehistoric Toryism, stood at the head, 



86 MR. GLADSTONE 

and Mr. Gladstone next to him with a majority of 173 
over his Ultra-Protestant opponent. 

Mr. Gladstone's career naturally divides itself into three 
main parts. The first of them ends with his retirement 
from the representation of Newark. The central part 
ranges from 1847 to 1868. Happily, the third is still in- 
complete. 

We have thus brought him through the preparatory 
stages of his course. We have carefully followed his early 
education; the influences which formed his character 
and mind ; the political and theological controversies 
in which he shared, and the part which he bore in each. 
Wherever it w T as possible, his very words have been re- 
corded. All this has been done in the hope of bringing 
vividly before the mind the scenes and acts of a past so 
distant that it is almost forgotten. A few contemporary 
observers survive ; and it is only by their kindness that the 
writer has been enabled to present even this imperfect record 
of the circumstances amid which the greatest of our 
living countrymen reached maturity ; the processes by 
which he was prepared for his destined work ; and the 
forces which determined the course and complexion of his 
magnificent career. 

We now see him in his thirty-ninth year, with a record 
of signal and unbroken success, in the enjoyment of all 
that health, intellect, fortune, and high character can give ; 
eloquent, cultivated, accomplished, and now experienced 
in public life ; standing well with his party and not ill with 
his opponents ; admired, respected, and palpably destined 
to bear again, as he had borne before, a leading part in the 
highest tasks of Imperial Government. It is an interesting 
moment in an interesting career ; but the subject expands 



TRANSITION 8? 

before us, and for the remainder of the narrative we must 
be content with a more general view and a less detailed 
presentment than were applicable to the earlier stages. 

A careful examination of Mr. Gladstone's votes and 
speeches during the next three years would lead the 
student, even if he had no other knowledge of the facts to 
guide him, to the conclusion that the subject of his study 
had arrived at a period of transition. On one side the 
Conservative Free-trader clings fondly and tenaciously to the 
Toryism of his youth • on another, he is reaching out towards 
new realms of Liberal thought and action. He opposes mar- 
riage with a deceased wife's sister on theological and social 
grounds, asserting roundly that such marriage is ' contrary 
to the law of God, declared for three thousand years and 
upwards.' He deprecates the appointment of a Commission 
to enquire into the Universities, because it will deter intend- 
ing benefactors from effecting their munificent intentions. 
He argues for a second chamber in Australian legislatures, 
citing, perhaps a little unfortunately, the constitutional 
example of contemporary France. In all these utterances 
it is not hard to read the influence of the traditions in which 
he was reared, or of the ecclesiastical community which he 
represents in Parliament. 

Yet even in the theological domain a tendency towards 
Liberalism shows itself. His hatred of Erastianism is 
evinced by his gallant but unsuccessful attempt to secure 
for the clergy and laity of each colonial diocese the power 
of self-government. Amid the indignant protests of his 
Tory allies, and in opposition to his own previous speech 
and vote, he vindicates the policy of admitting the Jews to 
Parliament. He defends the establishment of diplomatic 
relations with the Court of Rome ; he supports the altera- 



88 MR. GLADSTONE 

tion of the parliamentary oath ; and, though he will not 
abet an abstract attack on Church Rates, he contends that 
their maintenance involves a corresponding duty to provide 
accommodation in the church for the very poorest of the 
congregation. 

On the commercial side his Liberalism is rampant. 
With even fanatical faith he clings to Free Trade, as the 
best guarantee for our national stability amid the crash of 
the dynasties and constitutions which went down in '48. 
He thunders against the insidious dangers of reciprocity. 
He desires, by reforming the laws which govern navigation, 
to make the ocean, ' that great highway of nations, as free 
to the ships that traverse its bosom as to the winds that 
sweep it.' 

And so the three years — 1847, 1848, 1849 — rolled by, 
full of stirring events in Europe and in England, in 
Church and in State, but marked by no special incidents 
in the life of Mr. Gladstone. For him these years were a 
period of mental growth, of transition, of development. A 
change was silently proceeding, which was not completed for 
twenty years — if, indeed, it has been completed yet. ' There 
have been,' he wrote in later days to Bishop Wilberforce, 
' two great deaths, or transmigrations of spirit, in my political 
existence — one, very slow, the breaking of ties with my 
original party.' This was now in progress. The other will 
be narrated in due course. 

The year 1850 was destined to bring into this bril- 
liant and prosperous life the new and bitter element of 
personal sorrow. This sorrow was twofold. In the first 
place it took the form of domestic bereavement. On April 9 
Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone lost a little daughter, Catherine 
Jessy, between four and five years old. The illness was 



PERSONAL TRIALS 89 

long and painful, and Mr. Gladstone bore his part in the 
nursing and watching. It is said by those who remember 
him in those days that he was tenderly fond of his little 
children, and the sorrow had therefore a peculiar bitterness. 
It was the first time that death had entered his married 
home. 

The other trial of the year, scarcely less searching, 
though unlike in all its circumstances, had its origin in the 
religious sphere. An Evangelical clergyman, the Rev. G. C. 
Gorham, had been presented to a living in the diocese 
of Exeter ; and that truly formidable prelate, Bishop 
Phillpotts, refused to institute him, alleging that he held 
heterodox views on the subject of Holy Baptism. After 
complicated litigation, the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council decided, on March 8, 1850, that the doctrine held 
by the incriminated clergyman was not such as to bar him 
from preferment in the Church of England. This decision 
naturally created great commotion in the Church. Men's 
minds were rudely shaken. The orthodoxy of the Church 
of England seemed to be jeopardized, and the supremacy of 
the Privy Council in a matter touching religious doctrine 
was felt to be an intolerable burden. 

Mr. Gladstone was one of those whom these events pro- 
foundly agitated, and on June 4 he liberated his soul in an 
elaborate and important letter addressed to Dr. Blomfield, 
Bishop of London. The subject of this letter was 'The Royal 
Supremacy, viewed in the light of Reason, History, and the 
Constitution.' It sought to prove that, as settled at the 
Reformation, the Royal Supremacy was not inconsistent 
with the spiritual life and inherent jurisdiction of the Church, 
but that the recent establishment of the Privy Council as the 
ultimate court of appeal in religious causes was ' an injurious, 



90 



MR. GLADSTONE 



and even dangerous, departure from the Reformation Settle- 
ment.' 

Mr. Gladstone thus sums up his contention : 

I find it no part of my duty, my Lord, to idolize the Bishops 
of England and Wales, or to place my conscience in their 
keeping. I do not presume or dare to speculate upon their 
particular decisions; but I say that, acting jointly, publicly, 
solemnly, responsibly, they are the best and most natural organs 
of the judicial office of the Church in matters of heresy, and, 
according to reason, history, and the Constitution, in that 
subject-matter the fittest and safest counsellors of the Crown. 
• •••>•■• 

We should, indeed, have a consolation, the greatest perhaps 
which times of heavy trouble and affliction can afford, in the 
reduction of the whole matter to a short, clear, and simple 
issue ; because such a resolution, when once unequivocally 
made clear by acts, would sum up the whole case before the 
Church to the effect of these words : ' You have our decision ; 
take your own ; choose between the mess of pottage, and the 
birthright of the Bride of Christ.' 

Those that are awake might hardly require a voice of such 
appalling clearness ; those that sleep, it surely would awaken ; 
of those that would not hear, it must be said, ' Neither would 
they hear, though one rose from the dead.' 

But She that, a stranger and a pilgrim in this world, is 
wedded to the Lord, and lives only in the hope of His Coming, 
would know her part ; and while going forth to her work with 
steady step and bounding heart, would look back with deep 
compassion upon the region she had quitted — upon the slumber- 
ing millions, no less blind to the Future, than ungrateful to the 
Past. 

After citing De Maistre's famous eulogy of the Church 
of England as ' tres-precieuse,' Mr. Gladstone thus con- 
cludes • 

It is nearly sixty years since thus a stranger and an alien, 
a stickler to the extremest point for the prerogatives of his 



THE GORHAM JUDGMENT Ql 

Church, and nursed in every prepossession against ours, neverthe- 
less turning his eye across the Channel, though he could then 
only see her in the lethargy of her organization, and the dull 
twilight of her learning, could nevertheless discern that there 
was a special work written of God for her in Heaven, and that 
she was VERY precious to the Christian world. Oh ! how 
serious a rebuke to those who, not strangers but suckled at 
her breast, not two generations back, but the witnesses now of 
her true and deep repentance, and of her reviving zeal and love, 
yet (under whatever provocation) have written concerning her 
even as men might write that were hired to make a case against 
her, and by an adverse instinct in the selection of evidence, and 
a severity of construction, such as no history of the deeds of 
man can bear, have often, too often in these last years, put her 
to open shame ! But what a word of hope and encouragement 
to everyone who, as convinced in his heart of the glory of her 
providential mission, shall unshrinkingly devote himself to 
defending within her borders the full and whole doctrine of the 
Cross, with that mystic symbol now as ever gleaming down on 
him from Heaven, now as ever showing forth its inscription : 
in hoc signo vi?ices. 

Unhappily for Mr. Gladstone's peace of mind, the view 
of the Church of England, thus boldly and beautifully set 
forth, did not commend itself to all those with whom up to 
this time he had acted in religious matters. Among those 
whom the troubles of the Church most powerfully affected 
were his two most intimate friends, the godfathers of his eldest 
son. These were the Archdeacon of Chichester, after- 
wards Cardinal Manning, and Mr. J. R. Hope. The Arch- 
deacon was a man who, from his undergraduate days, 
had exercised a powerful influence over his contemporaries. 
This influence was due to an early maturity of intellect and 
character. He had great shrewdness, tenacious will, a cogent 
and attractive style, and an impressive air of authority, 
enforced by natural advantages of person and bearing. As 



92 MR. GLADSTONE 

years went on, to these qualifications for leadership were 
added an increasing fervour of devotion, an enlarged ac- 
quaintance with life and men, and an unequalled gift of 
administration. Tradition says that the future Cardinal had 
once contemplated a political career, and, though a priest, 
he was essentially a statesman. He was on terms of affec- 
tionate intimacy with Mr. Gladstone, and was his trusted 
counsellor in all that concerned the welfare and efficiency of 
the Church of England. 

The character of Mr. Hope (who became Hope-Scott 
on succeeding to the estate of Abbotsford) and the senti- 
ments which Mr. Gladstone entertained towards him, have 
been partially indicated by letters quoted in previous 
chapters. A fuller view of him is given in the following 
letter addressed by Mr. Gladstone in 1873 to his friend's 
daughter, Mrs. Maxwell-Scott of Abbotsford : 

Few men, perhaps, have had a wider contact with their gen- 
eration, or a more varied experience of personal friendships, 
than myself. Among the large number of estimable and 
remarkable people whom I have known, and who have now 
passed away, there is in my memory an inner circle, and within 
it are the forms of those who were marked off from the com- 
parative crowd even of the estimable and remarkable by the 
peculiarity and privilege of their type. Of these very few — some 
four or five I think only — your father was one : and with regard 
to them it always seemed to me as if the type in each case was 
that of the individual exclusively, and as if there could be but 
one such person in our world at a time. After the early death 
of Arthur Hallam, I used to regard your father distinctly as at 
the head of all his contemporaries in the brightness and beauty 
of his gifts. 

We were at Eton at the same time, but he was considerably 
my junior, so that we were not in the way of being drawn 
together. At Christ Church we were again contemporaries, but 



MR. HOPE-SCOTT 93 

acquaintances only, scarcely friends. I find he did not belong 
to the ' Oxford Essay Club,' in which I took an active part, and 
which included not only several of his friends, but one with 
whom, unless my memory deceives me, he was most intimate — 
I mean Mr. Leader. 

The next occasion on which I remember to have seen him 
was in his sitting-room at Chelsea Hospital. There must, how- 
ever, have been some shortly preceding contact, or I should not 
have gone there to visit him. I found him among folios and 
books of grave appearance. It must have been about the year 
1836. He opened a conversation on the controversies which were 
then agitated in the Church of England, and which had Oxford 
for their centre. I do not think I had paid them much attention ; 
but I was an ardent student of Dante, and likewise of Saint 
Augustine ; both of them had acted powerfully upon my mind ; 
and this was in truth the best preparation I had for anything 
like mental communion with a person of his elevation. He 
then told me that he had been seriously studying the con- 
troversy, and that in his opinion the Oxford authors were right. 
He spoke not only with seriousness, but with solemnity, as if 
this was for him a great epoch ; not merely the adoption of a 
speculative opinion, but the reception of a profound and power- 
ful religious impulse. Very strongly do I feel the force of 
Dr. Newman's statements as to the religious character of his 
mind. It is difficult in retrospect to conceive of this, except 
as growing up with him from infancy. But it appeared to me 
as if at this period, in some very especial manner, his attention 
had been seized, his intellect exercised and enlarged in a new 
field ; and as if the idea of the Church of Christ had then once 
for all dawned upon him as the power which, under whatever 
form, was from thenceforward to be the central object of his 
affections, in subordination only to Christ Himself, and as His 
continuing representative. 

From that time I only knew of his career as one of un- 
wearied religious activity, pursued with an entire abnegation ot 
self, with a deep enthusiasm, under a calm exterior, and with a 
grace and gentleness of manner, which, joined to the force of 



94 MR. GLADSTONE 

his inward motives, made him, I think, without doubt the most 
winning person of his day. It was for about fifteen years, from 
that time onwards, that he and I lived in close, though latterly 
rarer intercourse. Yet this was due, on my side, not to any 
faculty of attraction, but to the circumstance that my seat in 
Parliament and my rather close attention to business, put me 
in the way of dealing with many questions relating to the 
Church and the universities and colleges, on which he desired 
freely to expend his energies and his time. 

,.»•••■• 

His correspondence with me, beginning in February 1837, 
truly exhibits the character of our friendship, as one founded in 
common interests, of a kind that gradually commanded more 
and more of the public attention, but that with him were 
absolutely paramount. The moving power was principally on 
his side. The main subjects on which it turned, and which also 
formed the basis of general intercourse, were as follows : First, 
a missionary organization for the province of Upper Canada. 
Then the question of the relations of Church and State, forced 
into prominence at that time by a variety of causes, and among 
them not least by a series of lectures, which Dr. Chalmers 
delivered in the Hanover Square Rooms, to distinguished 
audiences, with a profuse eloquence, and with a noble and almost 
irresistible fervour. Those lectures drove me upon the hazardous 
enterprise of handling the same subject upon what I thought a 
sounder basis. Your father warmly entered into this design ; 
and bestowed upon a careful and prolonged examination of this 
work in MS., and upon a searching yet most tender criticism of 
its details, an amount of thought and labour which it would, I 
am persuaded, have been intolerable to any man to supply, 
except for one for whom each and every day as it arose was a 
new and an entire sacrifice to duty. As in the year 1838, when 
the manuscript was ready, I had to go abroad on account 
mainly of some overstrain upon the eyes, he undertook the 
whole labour of carrying the work through the press ; and he 
even commended me, as you will see from the letters, because 
I did not show an ungovernable impatience of his aid. 

The general frame of his mind at this time, in October 1838, 



AN HONOURED FRIEND 95 

will be pretty clearly gathered from a letter of that month . . . 
written when he had completed that portion of his labours. He 
had full, unbroken faith in the Church of England, as a true portion 
of the Catholic Church ; to her he had vowed the service of his 
life ; all his desire was to uphold the framework of her institu- 
tions, and to renovate their vitality. He pushed her claims, you 
may find from the letters, further than I did ; but the difference 
of opinion between us was not such as to prevent our cordial 
co-operation then and for years afterwards ; though in using 
such a term I seem to myself guilty of conceit and irreverence 
to the dead, for I well know that he served her from an im- 
measurably higher level. 

« • • 1 1 1 1 1 

I do not know whether the one personal influence, which 
alone, I think, ever seriously affected his career, was brought 
to bear upon him at this time (1841). But the movement of his 
mind, from this juncture onwards, was traceably parallel to, 
though at a certain distance from, that of Dr. Newman. My 
opinion is (I put it no higher) that the Jerusalem Bishopric 
snapped the link which bound Dr. Newman to the English 
Church. I have a conviction that it cut away the ground on 
which your father had hitherto most firmly and undoubtingly 
stood. Assuredly, from 1841 or 1842 onwards, his most fond, 
most faithful, most ideal love progressively decayed, and doubt 
nestled and gnawed in his soul. He was, however, of a nature 
in which levity could find no place. Without question, he 
estimated highly, as it deserves to be estimated, the tremendous 
nature of a change of religious profession, as between the 
Church of England and the Church of Rome ; a change dividing 
asunder bone and marrow. Nearly ten years passed, I think, 
from 1841, during which he never wrote or spoke to me ^positive 
word indicating the possibility of the great transition. Long he 
harboured his misgivings in silence, and ruminated upon them. 
They even, it seemed to me, weighed heavily upon his bodily 
health. I remember that in 1843 I wrote an article in a Review 
which referred to the remarkable words of Archbishop Laud 
respecting the Church of Rome as it was ; and applied to the 
case those other remarkable words of Lord Chatham respect- 



g6 MR. GLADSTONE 

ing America, ' Never, never, never.' He said to me, half playfully 
(for the article took some hold upon his sympathies), ' What, 
Gladstone, never, never, never f ' 

It must have been about this time that I had another con- 
versation with him about religion, of which, again, I exactly 
recollect the spot. Regarding (forgive me) the adoption of the 
Roman religion by members of the Church of England as 
nearly the greatest calamity that could befall Christian faith in 
this country, I rapidly became alarmed when these changes 
began ; and very long before the great luminary, Dr. Newman, 
drew after him, it may well be said, ' the third part of the stars 
of Heaven.' This alarm I naturally and freely expressed to 
the man upon whom I most relied, your father. 

On the occasion to which I refer he replied to me with some 
admission that they were calamitous ; ' but,' he said, ' pray 
remember an important compensation, in the influence which the 
English mind will bring to bear upon the Church of Rome itself. 
Should there be in this country any considerable amount of 
secession to that Church, it cannot fail to operate sensibly in 
mitigating whatever gives most offence in its practices or temper.' 
I do not pretend to give the exact words, but their spirit and 
effect I never can forget. I then thought there was great force 
in them. 

When I learned that he was to be married, my opinion was 
that he had only allowed his thoughts to turn in the direction 
of the bright and pure attachment he had formed, because the 
object to which they had first been pledged had vanished or 
been hidden from his view. 

I have just spoken of your father as the man on whom I 
most relied ; and so it was. I relied on one other, also a 
remarkable man, who took the same course, at nearly the same 
time ; but on him most, from my opinion of his sagacity. 
From the correspondence of 1838 you might suppose that he 
relied upon me, that he had almost given himself to me. But 
whatever expressions his warm feelings combined with his 
humility may have prompted, it really was not so ; nor ought 
it to have been so, fcr I always felt and knew my own position 



AN INTENSE AFFECTION 97 

beside him to be one of mental as well as moral inferiority, 
cannot remember any occasion on which I exercised an in- 
fluence over him. I remember many on which I tried ; and 
especially when I saw his mind shaken, and, so to speak, on the 
slide. But these attempts (of which you may possibly have 
some written record) completely failed, and drove him into 
reserve. Never, on any one occasion, would he enter freely 
into the question with me. I think the fault lay much on my 
side. My touch was not fire enough for his delicate spirit. 
But I do not conceal from you that I think there was a certain 
amount of fault on his side also. Notwithstanding whit I have 
said of his humility, notwithstanding what Dr. Newman has 
most truly said of his self-renouncing turn, and total freedom 
from ambition, there was in him, I think, a subtle form of self- 
will, which led him, where he had a foregone conclusion or a 
latent tendency, to indulge it, and to refuse to throw his mind 
into free partnership with others upon questions of doubt and 
difficulty. Yet I must after all admit his right to be silent, 
unless where he thought he was to receive real aid ; and of this 
he alone could be the judge. 

Whatever may have been the precise causes of the reticence 
to which I have referred (and it is possible that physical weak- 
ness was among them), the character of our friendship had 
during these later years completely changed. It was originally 
formed in common and very absorbing interests. He was not 
of those shallow souls which think, or persuade themselves they 
think, that such a relation can continue in vigour and in fruit- 
fulness when its daily bread has been taken away. The feeling 
of it indeed remained on both sides, as you will see. On my 
side, I may say that it became more intense ; but only according 
to that perversity, or infirmity, of human nature, according to 
which we seem to love truly only when we lose. My affection 
for him, during those later years before his change, was, I may 
almost say, intense; and there was hardly anything, I think, 
which he could have asked me to do, and which I would not 
have done. But as I saw more and more through the dim light 

H 



98 MR. GLADSTONE 

what was to happen, it became more and more like the affection 
which is felt for one departed. 

As far as narrative is concerned, I am now at the close. In 
185a came the discussions and alarms connected with the 
Gorham judgment ; and came also the last flickering of the 
flame of his attachment to the Church of England. Thereafter 
I never found myself able to turn to account as an opening any 
word he spoke or wrote to me. 

It will be easily seen, from the foregoing extracts, that 
the change which was now impending cut Mr. Gladstone 
to the quick. 'I should say,' wrote a friend in 1891, 
' that it touched the depths of his soul almost more than 
anything which has happened since.' And, as so often 
happens in human life, the sorrow did not come alone. 
Throughout this period of transition Mr. Hope was in close 
association with Archdeacon Manning, who shared his 
worst misgivings about the character and destinies of the 
Church of England. They advanced with even steps to- 
wards the inevitable goal. In November the Archdeacon 
resigned his preferments, and on the Passion-Sunday next 
ensuing he and Mr. Hope were together received into the 
Roman Church. To their friend who remained behind, this 
twofold secession was an overwhelming grief. Mr. Glad- 
stone said, ' I felt as if I had lost my two eyes.' It was by 
no wish of his that his intimacy with Mr. Hope now came 
to an end. The decision w r as taken by the other. In reply 
to a letter expressing Mr. Gladstone's unchanged feelings, 
Mr. Hope writes : ' It would be hardly possible for either 
of us to attempt (except under one condition, for which I 
daily pray) the restoration of entire intimacy.' This letter 
was acknowledged by Mr. Gladstone in these beautiful 
and moving words : 



TPIE PARTING OF THE WAYS 99 

My dear Hope, — Upon the point most prominently put in 
your welcome letter I will only say you have not misconstrued 
me. Affection which is fed by intercourse, and above all by 
co-operation for sacred ends, has little need of verbal expres- 
sion, but such expression is deeply ennobling when active rela- 
tions have changed. It is no matter of merit to me to feel 
strongly on the subject of that change. It may be little better 
than pure selfishness. I have too good reason to know what 
this year has cost me ; and so little hope have I that the places 
now vacant can be filled up for me, that the marked character 
of these events in reference to myself rather teaches me this 
lesson — the work to which I had aspired is reserved for other 
and better men. And if that be the Divine will, I so entirely 
recognize its fitness that the grief would so far be small to 
me were I alone concerned. The pain, the wonder, and the 
mystery is this — that you should have refused the higher voca- 
tion you had before you. The same words, and all the same 
words, I should use of Manning too. Forgive me for giving 
utterance to what I believe myself to see and know ; I will not 
proceed a step further in that direction. 

There is one word, and one only in your letter that I do 
not interpret closely. Separated we are, but I hope and think 
not yet estranged. Were I more estranged I should bear the 
separation better. If estrangement is to come I know not, but 
it will only be, I think, from causes the operation of which is 
still in its infancy — causes not affecting me. Why should I be 
estranged from you ? I honour you even in what I think your 
error ; why, then, should my feelings to you alter in anything 
else? It seems to me as though, in these fearful times, events 
were more and more growing too large for our puny grasp, and 
that we should the more look for and trust the Divine purpose 
in them, when we find they have wholly passed beyond the 
reach and measure of our own. 'The Lord is in His holy 
temple : let all the earth keep silence before Him.' The very 
afflictions of the present time are a sign of joy to follow. 
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, is still our prayer in 
common : the same prayer, in the same sense ; and a prayer 
which absorbs every other. That is for the future : for the 

H 3 



100 MR. GLADSTONE 

present we have to endure, to trust, and to pray that each day 
may bring its strength with its burden, and its lamp for its 

gloom- rr . 

Ever yours with unaltered affection, 

W. E. Gladstone. 

Writing twenty-two years afterwards to Mrs. Maxwell- 
Scott, Mr. Gladstone says of the letter to which this was the 
reply : 

It was the epitaph of our friendship, which continued to 
live, but only, or almost only, as it lives between those who 
inhabit separate worlds. On no day since that date, I think 
was he absent from my thoughts ; and now I can scarcely tear 
myself from the fascination of writing about him. And so, too, 
you will feel the fascination of reading about him ; and it will 
serve to relieve the weariness with which otherwise you would 
have toiled through so long a letter. ... If anything which it 
contains has hurt you, recollect the chasm which separates our 
points of view ; recollect that what came to him as light and 
blessing and emancipation, had never offered itself to me other- 
wise than as a temptation and a sin ; recollect that when he 
found what he held his ' pearl of great price,' his discovery was 
to me beyond what I could describe, not only a shock and a 
grief, but a danger too. I having given you my engagement, 
you having accepted it, I have felt that I must above all things 
be true, and that I could only be true by telling you everything. 
If I have traversed some of the ground in sadness, I now 
turn to the brighter thought of his present light and peace and 
progress ; may they be his more and more abundantly, in 
that world where the shadows that our sins and follies cast 
no longer darken the aspect and glory of the truth ; and may 
God ever bless you, the daughter of my friend ! 

But it is time to return to the secular sphere. 



IOI 



CHAPTER V 

Don Pacifico —Civis Romanus— The Neapolitan prisons — The Papal 
aggression — Triumph over Mr. Disraeli— The Coalition Govern- 
ment—Chancellor of the Exchequer— First Budget. 

This year — 1850 — was marked by the memorable debate 
which is associated with the name of Don Pacifico. The 
circumstances from which that debate ultimately proceeded 
were as little dignified or striking as could easily be 
supposed. Don Pacifico was a Maltese Jew, a British 
subject domiciled at Athens. He happened to become 
obnoxious to the Athenian mob, who on April 4, 1847, 
wrecked and robbed his house. Don Pacifico appealed 
to the Greek Government for compensation. He claimed 
nearly thirty-two thousand pounds for the loss of his effects, 
among which a peculiarly sumptuous bedstead figured largely 
in the public view. The Greek Government were poor 
and were dilatory, and Don Pacifico's claim remained un- 
heeded. At the same time the English Government, or at 
any rate the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, had other 
quarrels with the Greek Government. Some land belonging 
to an Englishman resident in Athens had been taken by the 
Government, and they had offered the owner what he con- 
sidered an insufficient compensation. Some Ionian subjects y 
of the Queen had suffered hardship at the hands of the 



102 MR. GLADSTONE 

Greek authorities. A midshipman belonging to one of her 
Majesty's ships had been arrested by mistake at Patras. 
None of the incidents, taken by themselves, were of the 
least importance ; but, unfortunately, Lord Palmerston had 
persuaded himself that the French Minister at Athens was 
plotting against English interests there, and was egging on 
the Greek Government to disregard our claims. This was 
enough. The outrage on Don Pacifico's bedstead remained 
the head and front of Greek offending, but Lord Palmerston 
included all the other slights, blunders, and delays of justice 
in one sweeping indictment ; made the private claims into 
a national demand ; and peremptorily informed the Greek 
Government that they must pay what was demanded of 
them within a given time. The Government hesitated, and 
the British fleet was ordered to the Piraeus, and seized all 
the Greek vessels which were found in the waters. Russia 
and France took umbrage at this high-handed proceeding, 
and championed Greece. Lord Palmerston informed them 
that it was none of their business, and stood firm. The 
French ambassador was withdrawn from London, and for 
a while the peace of Europe was menaced. 

The Tories, feigning a generous indignation at this 
boisterous policy, made a violent attack upon Lord Palmer- 
ston. In the House of Lords, Lord Stanley carried a 
resolution expressing regret that ' various claims against the 
Greek Government, doubtful in point of justice or exag- 
gerated in amount, have been enforced by coercive measures, 
directed against the commerce and people of Greece, and 
calculated to endanger the continuance of our friendly 
relations with foreign Powers.' It was necessary to meet 
the adverse vote of the Lords by a counterblast in the 
Commons, and Mr. Roebuck, an independent Liberal, was 



' CI VIS ROMAN US' 103 

put up to move that the principles which had governed 
the foreign policy of the Government were ' calculated to 
maintain the honour and dignity of this country, and in 
times of unexampled difficulty to preserve peace between 
England and the various nations of the world.' The de- 
bate began on June 24, 1850. 

Lord Palmerston spoke with extraordinary force and 
skill. His speech lasted nearly five hours. ' He spoke,' Mr. 
Gladstone said, ' from the dusk of one day to the dawn of the 
next.' He defended his policy at every point. He declared 
that in every step which he had taken, however high-handed 
it might seem, he had been influenced by the sole desire 
that the meanest, the poorest, even the most disreputable, 
subject of the English Crown should be defended by the 
whole might of England against foreign oppression. He 
reminded the House of all that was implied in the Roman 
boast, Civis Romanus sunt, and he urged the House to 
make it clear that a British subject, in whatever land he 
might be, should feel confident that the watchful eye and 
the strong arm of England would protect him. This was 
irresistible. Civis Romanics settled the business. It was in 
vain that Mr. Gladstone, after reviewing the legal and con- 
stitutional aspects of the. case, fastened upon this phrase with 
all his rhetorical force, and demonstrated its 'inapplicability 
to the condition and claims of an English citizen.' 

Sir, great as is the influence and power of Britain, she cannot 
afford to follow, for any length of time, a self-isolating policy. 
It would be a contravention of the law of nature and of God, if 
it were possible for any single nation of Christendom to emanci- 
pate itself from the obligations which bind all other nations, and 
to arrogate, in the face of mankind, a position of peculiar privi- 
lege. And now I will grapple with the noble lord on the ground 



104 MR - GLADSTONE 

which he selected for himself, in the most triumphant portion of 
his speech, by his reference to those emphatic words, Civis 
Roma?ius sum. He vaunted, amidst the cheers of his supporters, 
that under his Administration an Englishman should be, through- 
out the world, what the citizen of Rome had been. What, then, 
sir, was a Roman citizen ? He was the member of a privileged 
caste ; he belonged to a conquering race, to a nation that held 
all others bound down by the strong arm of power. For 
him there was to be an exceptional system of law ; for him prin- 
ciples were to be asserted, and by him rights were to be enjoyed, 
that were denied to the rest of the world. Is such, then, the 
view of the noble lord as to the relation which is to subsist 
between England and other countries ? Does he make the claim 
for us that we are to be uplifted upon a platform high above the 
standing-ground of all other nations ? It is, indeed, too clear, 
not only from the expressions but from the whole tone of the 
speech of the noble viscount, that too much of this notion is 
lurking in his mind ; that he adopts, in part, that vain conception 
that we, forsooth, have a mission to be the censors of vice and 
folly, of abuse and imperfection, among the other countries of 
the world ; that we are to be the universal schoolmasters ; and 
that all those who hesitate to recognize our office can be governed 
only by prejudice or personal animosity, and should have the 
blind war of diplomacy forthwith declared against them. And 
certainly, if the business of a Foreign Secretary properly were 
to carry on diplomatic wars, all must admit that the noble lord 
is a master in the discharge of his functions. What, sir, ought 
a Foreign Secretary to be ? Is he to be like some gallant knight 
at a tournament of old, pricking forth into the lists, armed at all 
points, confiding in his sinews and his skill, challenging all 
comers for the sake of honour, and having no other duty than 
to lay as many as possible of his adversaries sprawling in the 
dust? If such is the idea of a good Foreign Secretary, I, for 
one, would vote to the noble lord his present appointment for 
his life. But, sir, I do not understand the duty of a Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs to be of such a character. I understand it 
to be his duty to conciliate peace with dignity. I think it to be 
the very first of all his duties studiously to observe, and to exalt 



THE LAW OF NATIONS 1 05 

n honour among mankind; that great code of principles which is 
termed the law of nations, which the honourable and learned 
member for Sheffield has found, indeed, to be very vague in 
their nature, and greatly dependent on the discretion of each 
particular country, but in which I find, on the contrary, a great 
and noble monument of human wisdom, founded on the com- 
bined dictates of reason and experience, a precious inheritance 
bequeathed to us by the generations that have gone before us, 
and a firm foundation on which we must take care to build 
whatever it may be our part to add to their acquisitions, if, 
indeed, we wish to maintain and to consolidate the brother- 
hood of nations and to promote the peace and welfare of the 
world. 

Sir, I say the policy of the noble lord tends to encourage 
and confirm in us that which is our besetting fault and weakness, 
both as a nation and as individuals. Let an Englishman travel 
where he will as a private person, he is found in general to be 
upright, high-minded, brave, liberal, and true ; but, with all this, 
foreigners are too often sensible of something that galls them in 
his presence, and I apprehend it is because he has too great 
a tendency to self-esteem — too little disposition to regard the 
feelings, the habits, and the ideas of others. Sir, I find this 
characteristic too plainly legible in the policy of the noble lord. 
I doubt not that use will be made of our present debate to work 
upon this peculiar weakness of the English mind. The people 
will be told that those who oppose the motion are governed by 
personal motives, have no regard for public principles, no en- 
larged ideas of national policy. You will take your case before 
a favourable jury, and you think to gain your verdict ; but, sir, 
let the House of Commons be warned— let it warn itself — 
against all illusions. There is in this case also a court of 
appeal. There is an appeal, such as the honourable and learned 
member for Sheffield has made, from the one House of Parlia- 
ment to the other. There is a further appeal from this House 
of Parliament to the people of England ; but, lastly, there is also 
an appeal from the people of England to the general sentiment 
of the civilized world ; and I, for my part, am of opinion that 



I06 MR. GLADSTONE 

England will stand shorn of a chief part of her glory and pride 
if she shall be found to have separated herself, through the 
policy she pursues abroad, from the moral support which the 
general and fixed convictions of mankind afford — if the day 
shall come when she may continue to excite the wonder and the 
fear of other nations, but in which she shall have no part in their 
affection and regard. 

No, sir, let it not be so ; let us recognize, and recognize with 
frankness, the equality of the weak with the strong ; the prin- 
ciples of brotherhood among nations, and of their sacred inde- 
pendence. When we are asking for the maintenance of the 
rights which belong to our fellow- subjects resident in Greece, let 
us do as we would be done by, and let us pay all respect to a 
feeble State, and to the infancy of free institutions, which we 
should desire and should exact from others towards their 
maturity and their strength. Let us refrain from all gratuitous 
and arbitrary meddling in the internal concerns of other States, 
even as we should resent the same interference if it were at- 
tempted to be practised towards ourselves. If the noble lord 
has indeed acted on these principles, let the Government to 
which he belongs have your verdict in its favour ; but if he has 
departed from them, as I contend, and as I humbly think and 
urge upon you that it has been too amply proved, then the 
House of Commons must not shrink from the performance of 
ts duty under whatever expectations of momentary obloquy or 
reproach, because we shall have done what is right ; we shall 
enjoy the peace of our own consciences, and receive, whether a 
little sooner or a little later, the approval of the public voice for 
having entered our solemn protest against a system of policy 
which we believe, nay, which we know, whatever may be its 
first aspect, must, of necessity, in its final results be unfavourable 
even to the security of British subjects resident abroad, which 
it professes so- much to study — unfavourable to the dignity of 
the country, which the motion of the honourable and learned 
member asserts it preserves — and equally unfavourable to that 
other great and sacred object, which also it suggests to our 
recollection, the maintenance of peace with the nations of the 
world. 



A SOLEMN APPEAL 10? 

The speech from which these citations are made deserves 
careful study. Lord Palmerston himself admitted that it 
was 'a first-rate performance.' In width and accuracy of 
information, debating skill, logical grip, and force of rhetoric 
it seems to mark a distinct advance upon the speaker's pre- 
vious efforts. It is indeed a remarkably perfect composition, 
finely conceived and finely executed. But, apart from its 
merits as a work of art, it is notable as exemplifying at a 
comparatively early period, and in high perfection, two of 
Mr. Gladstone's most conspicuous qualities, which have 
grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength, 
and have been attended by important and opposing con- 
sequences. The first of these is his high and even austere 
morality. He appeals to the most august of all tribunals, 
to ' the law of nature and of God.' As a test of a foreign 
policy he asks, not whether it is striking, or brilliant, or 
successful, but whether it is right. Is it consistent with 
moral principle and public duty ; with the chivalry due 
from the strong to the weak ; with the ' principles of 
brotherhood among nations, and of their sacred indepen- 
dence ' ? It is this habit of Mr. Gladstone's mind which has 
done so much to secure him the enthusiastic veneration of 
his followers, who loathe the savage law of brute force, who 
recognize the operation of moral principle in international 
relations, and who feel it a personal pain and degradation 
when England is forced to figure as the swashbuckler of 
Europe. 

But if this element has been a main factor in Mr. 
Gladstone's hold over the affections of his disciples, and 
thereby of his public success, it is not difficult to discern, 
in the second of the citations given above, the operation 
of another element which has done much to mar his popu- 



108 MR. GLADSTONE 

larity, to limit his range of influence, and to set great masses 
of his countrymen in opposition to his policy. This is his 
tendency to belittle England, to dwell on the faults and 
defects of Englishmen, to extol and magnify the virtues 
and graces of other nations, and to ignore the homely 
prejudice of patriotism. He has frankly told us that he 
does not know the meaning of ' prestige,' and an English 
Minister who makes that confession has yet to learn one of 
the governing sentiments of 

' An old and haughty nation proud in arms. 5 

Whether this peculiarity of Mr. Gladstone's mind can 
be referred to the fact that he has not a drop of English 
blood in his body is perhaps a fanciful enquiry, but its con- 
sequences are palpable enough in the vulgar belief that he 
is indifferent to the interests and honour of the country 
which he has three times ruled, and that his love of England 
is swamped and lost in the enthusiasm of humanity — 
unquestionably a nobler sentiment, but unfortunately one 
which has little power to sway the average Englishman. As 
it has been since seen in the disputes about the Alabama, 
and the Eastern Question, and in the controversy about 
Home Rule, so it was in the debate on Don Pacifico. For 
the moment, Civis Romanus carried all before it. Brother- 
hood, humanity, and chivalry went to the wall, and Lord 
Palmerston secured a majority of forty-six. 

Sir Robert Peel had spoken in the debate. He praised 
Palmerston's speech as a parliamentary performance, but 
gravely rebuked the policy which that speech defended. 
The division was taken in the early morning of June 29. 
In the afternoon of the same day he had a fall from 
his horse, and received injuries which proved fatal. He 



THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS 1 09 

died on July 2. It fell to Mr. Gladstone's lot to pronounce 
in the House of Commons a eulogy of his departed chief. 
His speech is full of pathos and eloquence, and, with its 
appropriate quotation from ' Marmion,' is a favourable speci- 
men of that style of memorial oratory, at once dignified and 
moving, in which he excels. He spoke of the hope and 
expectation which had been generally entertained that Sir 
Robert Peel would ' still have been spared to render to his 
country the most essential services.' One of those services 
would have been the consolidation and guidance of that 
brilliant group of gifted and high-minded men who had 
followed him in his momentous transition from Protection to 
Free Trade. The death of Sir Robert Peel dissolved the 
Peelite party. With the other members of that party we 
need not concern ourselves ; Mr. Gladstone is our business. 
Another stage had been reached in the process which was 
to convert him into a Liberal. 

In the winter of 1 850-1, Mr. Gladstone spent be- 
tween three and four months at Naples. He was taken 
there by the illness of one of his children, for whom 
a southern climate had been recommended. It is not 
a little remarkable that the statesman who had so lately 
and so vigorously denounced the ' vain conception that 
we, forsooth, have a mission to be the censors of vice 
and folly, of abuse and imperfection, among the other 
countries of the world,' should now have found himself 
irresistibly impelled by conscience and humanity to under- 
take a signal and effective crusade against the domestic 
administration of a friendly Power. During his residence 
at Naples, he learned that more than half the Chamber of 
Deputies, who had followed the party of Opposition, had 
been banished or imprisoned ; that a large number, pro- 



110 MR. GLADSTONE 

bably not less than twenty thousand, of the citizens had been 
imprisoned on charges of political disaffection, and that in 
prison they were subjected to the grossest cruelties. Mr. 
Gladstone's humanity was deeply stirred by these tales ot 
oppression and wrong, and he determined to examine them 
at first hand. So, to quote Lord Palmerston's phrase, 
'instead of confining himself to those amusements that 
abound in Naples, instead of diving into volcanoes and explo- 
ring excavated cities, we see him going to courts of justice, 
visiting prisons, descending into dungeons, and examining 
great numbers of the cases of unfortunate victims of ille- 
gality and injustice, with a view afterwards to enlist public 
opinion in the endeavour to remedy those abuses.' 

The result of these investigations Mr. Gladstone gave to 
the world in a letter which, on April 7, 1851, he addressed 
to Lord Aberdeen. In this letter he brings an elaborate, 
detailed, and horrible indictment against the rulers of 
Naples, especially as regards the arrangements of their 
prisons and the treatment of persons confined in them for 
political offences. He denounces the Neapolitan Govern- 
ment, in indignant words which he had heard on the spot, 
as la negazione di Dio eretta a sistema di governo. The 
publication of this letter caused a wide sensation in England 
and abroad, and profoundly agitated the Court of Naples. 
In reply to a question in the House of Commons, Lord 
Palmerston accepted and adopted Mr. Gladstone's state- 
ment, expressed keen sympathy with the cause which he 
had espoused, and sent a copy of his letter to the Queen's 
representative at every Court of Europe. A second letter 
and a third followed, and their effect, though for a while 
retarded, was unmistakably felt in the subsequent revolu- 
tion which created a free and united Italy. 



THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL III 

When Mr. Gladstone returned from Italy to England at 
the beginning of the Session of 1851, he found the country 
in convulsions of Protestant fury. In the preceding Sep- 
tember the Pope had issued Letters Apostolic, establishing 
a Roman Hierarchy in England, and purporting to map 
out the country into papal dioceses. This act of aggression 
was met by a storm of public indignation. People who 
had no particular religion of their own found a certain 
satisfaction to their conscience in denouncing the religion 
of others. Honest Protestants were genuinely indignant at 
what they regarded as an attack upon the Reformed Faith. 
Well-instructed Anglicans resented an act which practically 
denied the jurisdiction and authority of the Church of 
England. Devotees of the British Constitution were irri- 
tated by an interference with the royal prerogative ; and 
fervent patriots were enraged by the gratuitous intrusion 
of a foreign potentate. No element of combustion was 
wanted. Public meetings were held everywhere, fiery 
speeches made, and heroic resolutions passed. Every 
platform and every pulpit rang with variations on the fine 
old British air of ' No Popery ! ' and even Covent Garden 
Theatre and the Lord Mayor's banquet at the Guildhall 
re-echoed the strain in Shakespearian quotations. 

The Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, had published 
one of his celebrated letters, addressed this time to the 
Bishop of Durham, and, not content with rebuking and 
defying the Pope, had gone out of his way to denounce and 
insult the whole High Church party as the secret allies 
and fellow-workers' of Rome. As soon as Parliament 
met, he introduced the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, designed to 
prevent the assumption by Roman Catholic prelates of titles 
taken from any territory or place in the United Kingdom. 



112 MR. GLADSTONE 

Penalties were attached to the use of such titles, and all acts 
done by, and bequests made to, persons under them were to 
be void. The Bill was not well received ; it was airily lam- 
pooned by Mr. Disraeli, and solemnly denounced by Mr. 
Gladstone. It was condemned on one side as too strin- 
gent, on another as too mild. The difficulty of applying it 
to Ireland, where the system which it condemned had long 
been in full force, necessitated material alterations in it, 
and each alteration added force to the criticisms of oppo- 
nents. Those who thought the Bill too mild were indig- 
nant at concessions which made it milder ; those who 
resented it as a violation of religious liberty pointed out 
triumphantly that it could no longer be justified even as 
a temporary expedient designed to serve a practical end. 
Somehow the Bill scrambled through Parliament, and be- 
came simultaneously a law and a dead letter. Nobody 
obeyed it, or suffered for disobeying it, and twenty years 
afterwards it was quietly repealed at Mr. Gladstone's 
instance. But the difficulty which the Government en- 
countered in this ecclesiastical legislation was only one 
among many. Their Budget was unpopular ; their majority 
declined ; they were beaten on a motion in favour of assimi- 
lating the county to the borough franchise ; and, after a 
series of petty defeats, they resigned : but when Lord 
Stanley (who, it is said, offered Mr. Gladstone the Foreign 
Office) and Lord Aberdeen had both declined the task 
of forming an administration, Lord John Russell and 
his colleagues resumed office. This reconstructed Ministry 
very soon received a fatal blow. 

Lord Palmerston was one of the most independent 
and most masterful of men. He was intensely interested 
in foreign affairs, understood them thoroughly, and had 



( THE GERM OF LIBERATION' 113 

absolute reliance on his own judgment. Again and again, 
in spite of repeated warnings from Lord John Russell and 
an imperative memorandum from the Queen herself, he had 
taken his own line in important transactions, without even 
formal reference to his Sovereign or the Prime Minister. His 
crowning indiscretion was committed in December, 1851. 
On the 2nd of the month Louis Napoleon, Prince Presi- 
dent of the French Republic, by a single act of lawless 
violence, abolished the Constitution, and made himself 
practically Dictator. The details of that monstrous deed, 
and of the bloodshed which accompanied it, are written by 
the hand of a master in the ' Histoire d'un Crime.' The news 
created a profound sensation in England, and the Queen 
was rightly and keenly anxious that no step should be taken 
and no word said which would convey the impression that 
the English Government approved of what had been done. 

But it soon leaked out that Lord Palmerston had ex- 
pressed to Count Walewski, the French Ambassador in 
London, his entire approval of the Prince President's act 
This was too much for the patience of even a gracious 
Queen and a long-suffering Premier. After some rather 
complicated explanations which explained nothing, Lord 
John Russell dismissed Lord Palmerston from office on 
Christmas Eve, 1851. 

In the Christmas recess of 1851, Mr. Gladstone found 
time to write a letter to Dr. Skinner, Bishop of Aberdeen 
and Primus (whom he addressed as 'Right Reverend 
Father ') on the position and functions of the laity in the 
Church. This letter is remarkable because, as was detected 
at the time by Dr. Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. 
Andrews, it 'contained the germ of Liberation, and the 
political equality of all religions.' The Bishop published a 



114 MR. GLADSTONE 

controversial rejoinder, which drew from Dr. Gaisford, 
Dean of Christ Church, these emphatic words : ' You have 
proved to my satisfaction that this gentleman is unfit to 
represent the University.' 

In the following February, Lord Palmerston enjoyed, in 
his own jaunty phrase, his ' tit-for-tat with Johnny Russell,' 
and helped the Tories to defeat his late chief on a Bill for 
reorganizing the militia as a precaution against possible 
aggression from France. 

Lord John Russell was succeeded by Lord Derby, 
formerly Lord Stanley ; with Mr. Disraeli, who now entered 
office for the first time, as Chancellor of the Exchequer 
and Leader of the House of Commons. There was a 
scarcely-disguised intention to revive Protection. Mr. 
Disraeli introduced and carried a make-shift Budget, and 
the Government tided over the Session, and dissolved 
Parliament on July i, 1852. Mr. Gladstone's majority 
at Oxford was largely increased, but the general election 
did not materially disturb the balance of parties. There 
was now some talk of inducing Mr. Gladstone to join 
the Tory Government, and on November 28, Lord 
Malmesbury dubiously remarks, 'I cannot make out Glad- 
stone, who seems to me a dark- horse.' In the following 
month the Chancellor of the Exchequer produced his 
second Budget. It was an ambitious and a skilful attempt 
to reconcile conflicting interests, and to please all while 
offending none. The Government had come into office 
pledged to do something for the relief of the agricultural 
interest. They redeemed their pledge by reducing the 
duty on malt. This reduction created a deficit ; and they 
repaired the deficit by doubling the duty on inhabited 
houses. Unluckily, the agricultural interest proved, as usual, 



A FAMOUS DUEL I15 

ungrateful to its benefactors, and made light of the reduction 
on malt ; while those who were to pay for it in double 
taxation were naturally indignant. The voices of criticism, 
1 angry, loud, discordant voices,' were heard simultaneously 
on every side. The debate waxed fast and furious. In 
defending his hapless proposals, Mr. Disraeli gave full scope 
to his most characteristic gifts ; he pelted his opponents 
right and left with sarcasms, taunts, and epigrams, and 
went as near personal insult as the forms of Parliament 
permit. He sat down late at night, and Mr. Gladstone rose 
in a crowded and excited House to deliver an unpremeditated 
reply which has ever since been celebrated. Even the cold 
and colourless pages of ' Hansard ' show signs of the excite- 
ment under which he laboured, and of the tumultuous 
applause and dissent by which his opening sentences were 
interrupted. The speech of the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer, he said, must be answered ' on the moment.' It 
must be ' tried by the laws of decency and propriety.' He 
indignantly rebuked his rival's language and demeanour. 
He reminded him of the discretion and decorum due from 
every member, but pre-eminently due from the Leader, of the 
House. He tore his financial scheme to ribbons. It was 
the beginning of a duel which lasted till death removed one 
of the combatants from the political arena. ' Those who had 
thought it impossible that any impression could be made upon 
the House after the speech of Mr. Disraeli had to acknow- 
ledge that a yet greater impression was produced by the un- 
prepared reply of Mr. Gladstone.' The House divided and 
the Government were left in a minority of nineteen. This 
happened in the eaily morning of December 17, 1852. 
Within an hour of the division Lord Derby wrote to the 
Queen a letter announcing his defeat and the consequences 

1 2 



Il6 MR. GLADSTONE 

which it must entail, and that evening at Osborne he 
placed his formal resignation in her Majesty's hands. 

It was a moment of intense excitement. Some notion 
of the frenzy which prevailed may be gathered from the 
following incident. On December 20 'twenty ruffians of 
the Carlton Club ' as Mr. Greville calls them, gave a dinner to 
Major Beresford, who had been charged with bribery at the 
Derby election, and had escaped with nothing worse than a 
censure. ' After dinner,' continues Mr. Greville, ' when they 
got drunk, they went up stairs and, finding Gladstone alone 
in the drawing-room, some of them proposed to throw him 
out of the window. This they did not quite dare do, but 
contented themselves with giving some insulting message 
or order to the waiter, and then went away.' In spite of 
these amenities, Mr. Gladstone remained a member of 
the club (though he seldom used it) until he joined the Whig 
Government in 1859. 

The new Government was a coalition of Whigs and 
Peelites, with Sir William Molesworth thrown in to represent 
the Radicals. Lord Aberdeen became Prime Minister, and 
Mr. Gladstone Chancellor of the Exchequer. The other 
Peelites in the Cabinet were the Duke of Newcastle, Sir James 
Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert. Mr. Gladstone's seat at 
Oxford was fiercely contested. The poll was kept open for 
fifteen days. It may possibly account for the bitterness of 
the contest that Lord Derby, whom Mr. Gladstone had just 
helped to oust from office, had been elected Chancellor of 
the University, on the death of the Duke of Wellington, in the 
previous autumn. Various members of the University had 
probably hoped to suck no small advantage out of the rule 
of a Minister who was also chief of their academical body. 
Mr. Gladstone fought the battle on ecclesiastical lines. He 



CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 1 17 

laid great stress on Lord Aberdeen's friendliness to the 
Church, and vehemently protested his own continued loyalty 
to those principles of Churchmanship of which he had been 
for twenty years a distinguished exponent. But the more 
fiery spirits of the High Church party, headed by Arch- 
deacon Denison, mistrusted and opposed him, mainly on ac- 
count of his attitude towards religious education, and they 
succeeded in materially reducing his majority. He was, 
however, returned again, and entered on the active duties of 
a great office for which he was pre-eminently and uniquely 
lilted by an unequalled combination of financial, admini- 
strative, and rhetorical gifts. If one can conceive of a 
heaven-born Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Gladstone 
was that celestial product. 

His first Budget, which was awaited with intense inter- 
est, was introduced on April 18, 1853. It tended to make 
life easier and cheaper for large and numerous classes ; it 
promised wholesale remissions of taxation ; it lessened the 
charges on common processes of business, on locomotion, 
on postal communication, and on several articles of general 
consumption. The deficiency thus created was to be met by 
the application of the legacy duty to real property, by an 
increase of the duty on spirits, and by the extension of the 
income tax, at $d. in the pound, to all incomes between 
100/. and 150/. 

The speech, five hours long, in which these proposals 
were introduced, held the House spell-bound. Here was an 
orator who could apply all the resources of a burnished 
rhetoric to the elucidation of figures ; who could make pippins 
and cheese interesting, and tea serious ; who could sweep the 
widest horizon of the financial future, and yet stoop to 
bestow the minutest attention on the microcosm of penny 



Il8 MR. GLADSTONE 

stamps and post-horses. Above all, the Chancellor's mode 
of handling the income tax attracted interest and admira- 
tion. It was no nicely-calculated less or more, no tinkering 
or top-dressing, no mere experimenting with results, but a 
searching analysis of the financial and moral grounds on 
which the impost rested, and an historical justification and 
eulogy of it couched in language worthy of a more majestic 
theme. ' It was in the crisis of the revolutionary war that, 
when Mr. Pitt found the resources of taxation were failing 
under him, his mind fell back upon the conception of the 
income tax ; and, when he proposed it to Parliament, that 
great man, possessed with his great idea, raised his eloquence 
to an unusual height and power.' Yet, great as had been 
the services of the income tax at a time of national danger, 
and great as they would prove again should such a crisis 
recur, Mr. Gladstone could not consent to retain it as a part 
of the permanent and ordinary finances of the country. It 
was objectionable on account of its unequal incidence, of 
the harassing investigation into private affairs which it 
entailed, and of the frauds to which it inevitably led. There- 
fore, having served its turn, it was to be extinguished in i860. 

Depend upon it, when you come to close quarters with this 
subject, when you come to measure and test the respective 
relations of intelligence and labour and property in all their 
myriad and complex forms, and when you come to represent 
those relations in arithmetical results, you are undertaking an 
operation of which I should say it was beyond the power of man 
to conduct it with satisfaction, but which, at any rate, is an 
operation to which you ought not constantly to recur ; for 
if, as my noble friend once said with universal applause, this 
country could not bear a revolution once a year, I will venture 
to say that it cannot bear a reconstruction of the income tax 
once a year. 

Whatever you do in regard to the income tax, you must be 



THE INCOME TAX 119 

bold, you must be intelligible, you must be decisive. You 
must not palter with it. If you do, I have striven at least to 
point out as well as my feeble powers will permit, the almost 
desecration I would say, certainly the gross breach of duty to 
your country, of which you will be found guilty, in thus putting 
to hazard one of the most potent and effective among all its 
material resources. I believe it to be of vital importance, 
whether you keep this tax or whether you part with it, that you 
should either keep it or should leave it in a state in which it will 
be fit for service on an emergency, and that it will be impossi- 
ble to do if you break up the basis of your income tax. 

1 a • 1 t 1 • 

If the Committee have followed me, they will understand 
that we found ourselves on the principle that the income-tax 
ought to be marked as a temporary measure ; that the public 
feeling that relief should be given to intelligence and skill as 
compared with property ought to be met, and may be met with 
justice and with safety, in the manner we have pointed out ; 
that the income tax in its operation ought to be mitigated by 
every rational means, compatible with its integrity ; and, above 
all, that it should be associated in the last term of its existence, 
as it was in the first, with those remissions of indirect taxation 
which have so greatly redounded to the profit of this country 
and have set so admirable an example — an example that has 
already in some quarters proved contagious — to the other na- 
tions of the earth. These are the principles on which we stand, 
and these the figures. I have shown you that if you grant us 
the taxes which we ask, to the moderate amount of 2,500,000/. in 
the whole, much less than that sum for the present year, you, or 
the Parliament which may be in existence in i860, will be in 
the condition, if it shall so think fit, to part with the income tax. 

Sir, I scarcely dare to look at the clock, shamefully re- 
minding me, as it must, how long, how shamelessly, I have 
trespassed on the time of the Committee. All I can say in 
apology is that I have endeavoured to keep closely to the topics 
which I had before me — 

— immensum spatiis confecimus sequor, 
Et jam tempus equum fumantia solvere colla. 



120 MR. GLADSTONE 

These are the proposals of the Government. They may be 
approved or they may be condemned, but I have at least this 
full and undoubting confidence, that it will on all hands be ad- 
mitted that we have not sought to evade the difficulties of our 
position ; that we have not concealed those difficulties either 
from ourselves or from others ; that we have not attempted to 
counteract them by narrow or flimsy expedients ; that we have 
prepared plans which, if you will adopt them, will go some way 
to close up many vexed financial questions — questions such as, 
if not now settled, may be attended with public inconvenience, 
and even with public danger, in future years and under less fa- 
vourable circumstances ; that we have endeavoured, in the plans 
we have now submitted to you, to make the path of our suc- 
cessors in future years not more arduous but more easy : and 
I may be permitted to add that, while we have sought to do 
justice, by the changes we propose in taxation, to intelligence 
and skill as compared with property — while we have sought to 
do justice to the great labouring community of England by 
furthering their relief from indirect taxation, we have not been 
guided by any desire to put one class against another. We 
have felt we should best maintain our own honour, that we 
should best meet the views of Parliament, and best promote the 
interests of the country, by declining to draw any invidious dis- 
tinction between class and class, by adopting it to ourselves as 
a sacred aim to diffuse and distribute — burden if we must, 
benefit if we may — with equal and impartial hand ; and we 
have the consolation of believing that by proposals such as these 
we contribute, as far as in us lies, not only to develope the 
material resources of the country, but to knit the hearts of the 
various classes of this great nation yet more closely than here- 
tofore to that Throne and to those institutions under which it 
is their happiness to live. 

The scheme thus introduced astonished, interested, and 
attracted the country. The Queen and Prince Albert wrote 
to congratulate the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Public 
authorities and private friends joined in the chorus of eulogy. 



THE SUCCESSION DUTY 121 

The Budget demonstrated at once its author's absolute 
mastery over figures j the persuasive force of his expository 
gift ; his strange power of clothing the dry bones of customs 
and tariffs with the flesh and blood of human interest, and 
even something of the warm glow of poetic colour. It es- 
tablished the Chancellor of the Exchequer as the paramount 
financier of his day, and it was only the first of a long series 
of similar performances, different, of course, in detail, but 
alike in their bold outlines and brilliant handling. Pro- 
bably Mr. Gladstone's financial statements, taken as a 
whole, constitute the most remarkable testimony to his 
purely intellectual qualities which will be available for the 
guidance of posterity when it comes to assign his perma- 
nent place in the ranks of human greatness. 

Looking back on a long life of strenuous exertion, Mr. 
Gladstone declares that the work of preparing his proposals 
about the Succession Duty and carrying them through Par- 
liament was by far the most laborious task which he ever 
performed. 

Writing on May 22, 1853, Mr. Greville records an 
interview with Sir James Graham, and a curious conversa- 
tion : 

Graham seemed in excellent spirits about their political 
state and prospects, all owing to Gladstone and the complete 
success of his Budget. The long and numerous Cabinets, which 
were attributed by the ' Times ' to disunion, were occupied in 
minute consideration of the Budget, which was there fully dis- 
cussed ; and Gladstone spoke in the Cabinet one day for three 
hours rehearsing his speech in the House of Commons, though 
not quite at such length. . . . He talked of a future head, as 
Aberdeen is always ready to retire at any moment ; but it is 
very difficult to find anyone to succeed him. I suggested 
Gladstone. He shook his head and said it would not do. , . , 



122 MR. GLADSTONE 

He spoke of the grand mistakes Derby had made. Gladstone's 
object certainly was for a long time to be at the head of the 
Conservative party in the House of Commons, and to join with 
Derby, who might, in fact, have had all the Peelites if he would 
have chosen to ally himself with them, instead of with Disraeli ; 
thus the latter had been the cause of the ruin of the party. 
Graham thought that Derby had committed himself to Disraeli 
in George Bentinck's lifetime in some way which prevented his 
shaking him off, as it would have been his interest to do. The 
Peelites would have united with Derby, but would have nothing 
to do with Disraeli. 

On November 3, 1853, Bishop Wilberforce, after a 
conversation with Mr., afterwards Sir, Arthur Gordon, writes : 
' Lord Aberdeen now growing to look upon Gladstone as 
his successor, and so told Gladstone the other day. Cabinet 
shaky.' 

That the Budget of 1853 did not in the result secure 
for the public all the boons which it promised, was due to 
circumstances which, if not wholly unforeseen, were not 
generally foreseen in all the awful possibilities of evil which 
they opened to the gaze of a prescient few. Mr. Gladstone's 
first Budget was prepared and presented on the eve of the 
Crimean War, and carried into effect amid all the horrors 
of that grim campaign. 



123 



CHAPTER VI 

The Crimean War — Resignation — Ecclesiastical troubles — A free lance 
— The. ' Arrow ' — The Divorce Bill — Opposition to Lord Palmers- 
ton — Declines to join Tory Government — Lord High Commissioner 
to the Ionian Islands — Chancellor of the Exchequer in Whig 
Government — The French Treaty and the Paper Duties — Conflict 
with the House of Lords — Opinion on the American War. 

Mr. Bright was once walking with one of his sons — then 
a schoolboy — past the Guards' monument in Waterloo Place. 
The boy caught sight of the solitary word ' Crimea ' in- 
scribed on the base, and asked his father what it meant. 
Mr. Bright's answer was as emphatic as the inscription — ' A 
Crime.' It was indeed a crime, a grave, a disastrous, and 
a wanton crime, that committed Christian England to a war 
in defence of the great anti-Christian Power. By what 
processes Mr. Gladstone became and remained involved in 
such accountability is a subject of interesting but painful and 
perhaps profitless enquiry. 

The history of the war may be briefly told. For nearly 
forty years Europe had enjoyed the sunshine of unbroken 
peace. Towards the end of 1852 a little cloud, no bigger 
than a man's hand, was seen to hover over the Holy Places 
of Jerusalem. The Greek and Roman Churches contended 
for the custody of those sacred spots which are associated 



124 MR - GLADSTONE 

with the most august events of Christian history, and are 
therefore in some sense the common heritage of the whole 
Christian family. The claims of the rival Churches were 
supported respectively by Russia and France, and to this 
cause of dispute was soon added a formal claim on the part 
of the Czar to a Protectorate over all the Greek subjects of 
the Porte. On July 2 and 3, 1853, the Russians crossed 
the Pruth, and occupied the Danubian principalities, which 
by the Treaty of Balta Liman (1849) were to be evacuated 
by the forces both of the Czar and the Sultan, and not to be 
entered by either except for the repression of internal dis- 
turbance. In this conjuncture England might have taken 
one or other of two courses, either of which, if plainly 
announced and persistently followed, would probably have 
averted war. The alternatives were to inform Turkey that 
England would render her no assistance, or to warn Russia 
that, if she went to war, England would fight for Turkey. 
But here the inherent weakness of the coalition, founded on 
an attempted amalgamation of really immiscible elements, 
produced a fatal indecision. Lord Aberdeen wished 
England to stand aloof ; Lord Palmerston and Lord John 
Russell wished her to support Turkey ; and, generally speak- 
ing, the Peelite members of the Government were a shade 
more pacific than the Whigs. Thus halting between two 
opinions, the country ' drifted into war ' with Russia, and 
the fatal step was formally announced to Parliament on 
March 27, 1854. It thus fell to the lot of the most pacific 
of Ministers, the devotee of retrenchment, and the anxious 
cultivator of all industrial arts, to prepare a War Budget, 
and to meet as well as he might the exigencies of a conflict 
which had so cruelly dislocated all the ingenious devices of 
financial optimism., 



THE CRIMEA 125 

No amount of skill in the manipulation of figures, 
no ingenuity in shifting fiscal burdens, could prevent the 
addition of forty-one millions to the national debt, or 
could countervail the appalling mismanagement which 
was rampant at the seat of war. The paralysis which 
springs from divided counsels seemed to have affected 
the 'whole of our military administration. To the insepar- 
able evils of war — bloodshed and sickness — were added 
the horrors of a peculiarly cruel winter, and a vast amount 
of unnecessary privation and hardship, due to divided 
responsibility and to an inconceivable clumsiness of 
organization. England lost some twenty-four thousand 
men, of whom five-sixths died from preventable disease, 
and the want of proper food, clothing and shelter. Well 
might Mr. Gladstone declare that the state of the army in 
the Crimea was ' a matter for weeping all day and praying 
all night.' But the critics of the Government were not dis- 
posed to content themselves with tears and prayers. Their 
sentiments took the more homely and more inconvenient 
form of what was practically a vote of censure. As soon 
as Parliament met in January, 1855, Mr. Roebuck, the 
Radical member for Sheffield, gave notice that he would 
move for a Select Committee ' to enquire into the condition 
of our army before Sebastopol, and into the conduct of 
those departments of the Government whose duty it has 
been to minister to the wants of that army.' On the same 
day Lord John Russell, without announcing his intention to 
his colleagues, resigned his office as Lord President of the 
Council, sooner than attempt the defence of the Government. 
It is only fair to Lord John to say that he had long 
been unsuccessfully urging upon his colleagues the need 
of greater activity and better organization, and that he 



126 MR. GLADSTONE 

honestly felt that the conduct which he would be called 
upon to defend was indefensible. But this fact did not 
make his sudden resignation, in face of a hostile motion, 
less embarrassing to his colleagues ; and Mr. Gladstone, in 
defending the Government against Mr. Roebuck, rebuked 
in dignified and significant terms the conduct of men who, 
1 hoping to escape from punishment, ran away from duty.' 
But the case against Ministers was so overwhelmingly strong 
that all the resources of dialectical ingenuity were powerless to 
withstand it ; and, on the division on Mr. Roebuck's motion, 
the Government was beaten by the unexpected majority of 

157. 

Thus perished Lord Aberdeen's Ministry, amid circum- 
stances that justified the remarkable warning with which 
Mr. Disraeli had greeted its birth — 'England does not love 
coalitions.' 

Lord Derby essayed to form a Ministry, but the Peel- 
ites would not join him, nor would their adhesion have 
been welcome to his own followers. Lord John Russell, 
though the Queen applied to him, was obviously impos- 
sible • and Lord Palmerston became Prime Minister. The 
Peelites joined him, and Mr. Gladstone resumed office 
as Chancellor of the Exchequer. A shrewd observer at 
the time pronounced him ' indispensable. Any other 
Chancellor of the Exchequer would be torn in bits by 
him.' This was the first time that he had served under a 
Whig chief. It was a marked step in the road towards 
Liberalism. The Government was formed on the under- 
standing that Mr. Roebuck's proposed Committee was to be 
resisted. Lord Palmerston soon saw that further resistance 
was useless. His Peelite colleagues stuck to their text, and, 
within three weeks after resuming office, Mr. Gladstone 



AN APOLOGIA 1 27 

Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert resigned. 
From this time forward, Mr. Gladstone had of course no 
direct or official responsibility for the war, though he 
defended the policy which had dictated it, and the general 
lines on which it had been pursued, in more than 
one impressive and well-argued speech. More than 
twenty years after the conclusion of peace, he vindicated 
his share in the unhappy business, in a careful and elaborate 
essay, in which, without professing an absolute confi- 
dence in the wisdom of his action, he sought to prove 
that, in its inception, the Crimean War was wise and 
good, and was rendered necessary by the actual state of 
Europe. 'The design of the Crimean War was, in its 
groundwork, the vindication of European law against an 
unprovoked aggression. It sought, therefore, to maintain 
intact the condition of the menaced party against the 
aggressor ; or, in other words, to defend against Russia the 
integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire.' From 
the doctrine of public duty thus suggested, Englishmen 
who are jealous of the Christian honour cf their country, 
and who revere Mr. Gladstone as the foremost champion 
of that honour in domestic and foreign relations, may 
appeal to the authority of one whom even he calls 
master : 

I have never before heard it held forth (said Burke) that 
the Turkish Empire has ever been considered as any part 
of the balance of power in Europe. They despise and contemn 
all Christian princes as infidels, and only wish to subdue and 
exterminate them and their people ! What have these worse 
than savages to do with the Powers of Europe, but to spread 
war, destruction, and pestilence amongst them ? The Ministers 
and the policy which shall give these people any weight in 
Europe will deserve all the bans and curses of posterity. 



I2& MR. GLADSTONE 

When, in February, 1855, Mr. Gladstone resigned, or, aS 
he now tells us was the case, was ' driven ' from office, his 
position was one of peculiar isolation, and his political 
prospects were involved in profound uncertainty. The 
degree and nature of this uncertainty are well illustrated 
by the record, since given to the world, of a conversation 
which took place at the time between two experienced 
lookers-on, Mr. Nassau Senior and Sir Frederick Elliot. It is 
worth recalling, if only to show the innate and incurable 
fallibility of the political prophet : 

* As to the secession,' Elliot said, ' of Herbert and Gladstone, 
it is a great blow to the future Government and a prodigious 
accession to the Tories.' 

'Will Gladstone,' I said, 'oust Disraeli? Will he be able, 
as soon as he crosses the floor of the House, to assume the 
command of his old enemies ? ' 

'Not immediately,' said Elliot. 'He will at first take a 
neutral position. He will protect the Government, but from 
time to time candidly admit its shortcomings, and gradually 
from damaging them by his support, will slide into damaging 
them by his attacks, until Dizzy is deposed, and Herbert and 
Gladstone and Cardwell become the leaders of the Opposition 
without anybody's knowing how it was done.' 

' Dizzy,' I said, ' will scarcely submit to be so blandly ab- 
sorbed. If the Tories throw him off he will return to his early 
love, the Radicals.' 

' He may try it,' said Elliot, ' but he will fail. They will not 
accept him. He is purely a rhetorician, and a rhetorician 
powerful only in attack. He wants knowledge, he wants the 
habits of patient investigation by which it is to be acquired 
he wants sincerity, he wants public spirit, he wants tact, he 
wants birth, he wants fortune : he wants, in short, nine out of 
ten of the qualities that fit a man to lead a party. Nothing but 
the penury of talent among the Tories after the secession of the 



AN INDEPENDENT MEMBER I2Q 

Peelites gave him importance. If the Peelites rejoin their old 
associates, he is lost.' l 

But the Peelites did not 'join their old associates.' 
Released from office, Mr. Gladstone assumed a position 
of perfect independence, belonging to neither party, but 
related in some degree to both ; and, while not im- 
mediately available for construction and defence, more 
than ever dreaded in criticism and attack. ' His sym- 
pathies,' he himself said, were ' with Conservatives, his 
opinions with Liberals ' : a dangerous dichotomy for both 
parties involved. 

In the August of this year Lord Aberdeen said : 

Gladstone intends to be. Prime Minister. He has great 
qualifications, but some serious defects : the chief, that when 
he has convinced himself, perhaps by abstract reasoning, of 
some view, he thinks everyone else ought at once to see it as 
he does, and can make no allowance for difference of opinion. 
Gladstone must thoroughly recover his popularity. This un- 
popularity is merely temporary. He is supreme in the House 
of Commons. The Queen has quite got over her feeling against 
him, and likes him much. ... I have told Gladstone that 
when he is Prime Minister, I will have a seat in his Cabinet, 
if he desires it, without an office. 

Two interesting conversations with Sir James Graham 
may here be noticed. On April 3, 1856, Mr. Greville 

writes : 

Yesterday, I met Graham. ... He began talking over the 
state of affairs generally. . . . He says there is not one man in 
the House of Commons who has ten followers — neither Glad- 
stone, nor Disraeli, nor Palmerston . . . that Gladstone is 
certainly the ablest man there. ... His religious opinions, in 

1 'Behind the Scenes in English Politics,' by the late Nassau W. 
Senior {Nineteenth Century, September 1890). 



130 MR. GLADSTONE 

which he is zealous and sincere, enter so largely into his political 
conduct as to form a very serious obstacle to his success, for 
they are abhorrent to the majority of this Protestant country, 
and (I was rather surprised to hear him say) Graham thinks 
approach very nearly to Rome. Gladstone would have nothing 
to do with any Government unless he were leader in the House 
of Commons. . . . Disraeli appears to be endeavouring to 
approach Gladstone, and a confederacy between those two and 
young Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby) is by no means a?i im- 
probability. 

In connexion with Sir James Graham's remarks on 
Mr. Gladstone's religious opinions, the following letter may 
be read with interest. Archdeacon Denison had been 
prosecuted for teaching the doctrine of the Real Presence 
in the Holy Eucharist, and was condemned by Dr. Lushing- 
ton, acting as assessor to Archbishop Sumner. With refer- 
ence to this judgment Mr. Gladstone writes on August 18, 
1856: 

Whatever comes of it, two things are pretty plain : the first, 
that not only with executive authorities, but in the sacred halls 
of justice, there are now two measures and not one in use — the 
strait one for those supposed to err in believing overmuch, 
and the other for those who believe too little. The second, that 
this is another blow to the dogmatic principle in the Established 
Church : the principle on which, as a Church, it rests, and on 
which, as an establishment, it seems less and less permitted to 
rest. No hasty judgment is pardonable in these matters, but 
for the last ten or twelve years undoubtedly the skies have been 
darkening for a storm, 

On the 23rd of August he writes: 

The stewards of doctrine should, on the general ground of 
controversy and disturbance, deliver, from their pulpits or as 
they think fit, to the people the true and substantive doctrine of 
the Holy Eucharist. This freely done, and without any notice 



'ROVING ICEBERGS' 



131 



of the Archbishop or Dr. Lushington, I should think far better 
for the time than any declaration. . . . 

It is high time that there should be a careful argument upon 
the justice and morality of late ecclesiastical proceedings ; that 
the Archbishop should be awakened out of his fool's paradise 
and made to understand that, though reverence for his office 
has up to this time, in a wonderful manner, kept people silent 
about his proceedings, yet the time has come when a beginning 
must be made towards describing them without circumlocution 
in their true colours ; and it must likewise be shown how 
judicial proceedings are governed by extra-judicial considera- 
tions, and a system is growing up under which ecclesiastical 
judges are becoming the virtual legislators of the Church, while 
its legislature is silent. 

On September 27, 1856, Bishop Wilberforce, writing at 
Netherby, thus notes Sir James Graham's views of Mr. 
Gladstone : 

In the highest sense of the word Liberal ; of the greatest 
power, very much the first man in the House of Commons. 
Detested by the aristocracy for his succession duty — the most 
truly Conservative measure passed in my recollection. Just 
reading De Tocqueville, and when I read his statement that 
unequal taxation was the most effective of all the causes of the 
Revolution, I thought at once of Gladstone and his succession 
duty. He must rise to the lead in such a Government as ours, 
even in spite of all that hatred to him. . . . Gladstone must 
rise ; he is young, he is by far the ablest man in the House of 
Commons, and, in it, in the long run, the ablest man must lead. 

Mr. Gladstone has said of himself and of his Peelite 
colleagues, during this period of political isolation, that they 
were like roving icebergs, on which men could not land 
with safety, but with which ships might come into perilous 
collision. Their weight was too great not to count, but it 
counted first this way and then that. ' It is not alleged 
against them that their conduct was dishonourable, but 

k 2 



132 • MR. GLADSTONE 

their public action was attended with much public in- 
convenience.' In the autumn of 1856 he is reported to have 
said to an intimate friend : ' It would be a great gain if I and 
Sidney Herbert and Graham could be taken out of the 
House, and let them shake up the bag and make new 
combinations. If Lord Derby and Lord Aberdeen under- 
stood one another, all would be easy. Palmerston has 
never been a successful Minister — great love of power, 
and even stronger a principle of false shame, cares not how 
much dirt he eats, but it must be gilded dirt. Palmerston 
is strong in the House of Commons, but he does not 
understand the House of Commons.' The friend to whom 
these disclosures were made adds this comment : ' Mani- 
festly Gladstone leans to a Conservative alliance. The 
Conservative is the best chance for the Church.' And a 
few months later Lord Malmesbury writes : ' Gladstone 
and Sidney Herbert appear anxious to join Lord Derby.' 

But in whatever direction his leanings lay, it is evident 
that he was very little disposed to be friendly to the Whig 
Government. He was a peculiarly acute thorn in the side of 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and criticized the Budgets 
with unsparing vigour. ' Gladstone seems bent on leading 
Sir George Lewis a weary life,' wrote Mr. Greville. But 
finance was by no means the only subject which excited 
the pugnacious ardour of this terrible free-lance. Armed 
cap-a-pie with his panoply of knowledge, dialectic, and 
eloquence, he ranged over the wide plains of foreign and 
domestic policy, now threatening the most impassioned re- 
sistance to the imposition of heavier duties on the working 
man's te^a and sugar, now championing the cause of religious 
and voluntary education against Lord John Russell's 
very moderate endeavours after a national system ; one 



THE DIVORCE BILL 1 33 

day denouncing the secret enlistment of American soldiers 
under the English flag, and another repudiating the high- 
handed behaviour of the English authorities towards the 
Chinese in the matter of the lorcha Arrow. 

The debate on the last-named subject proved fatal to 
the Government. 

Mr. Greville writes on March 4 : ' A majority of sixteen 
against Government, more than any of them expected. A 
magnificent speech of Gladstone. Palmerston's speech is 
said to have been very dull in the first part, and very bow- 
wow in the second.' In consequence of the ministerial 
defeat, Parliament was dissolved on March 21, 1857. The 
General Election resulted in a majority for Lord Palmerston. 
Mr. Gladstone was returned unopposed for the University 
of Oxford. On June 3 Mr. Greville writes : ' Gladstone 
hardly ever goes near the House of Commons, and never 
opens his lips.' But this silence was not destined to last 
long. In the later part of the Session Mr. Gladstone's 
great powers and peculiar knowledge found abundant and 
congenial employment in strenuous opposition to the in- 
famous Divorce Bill which had come down from the 
House of Lords. He spoke more than seventy times on 
the various stages of the Bill, endeavouring first to defeat 
it on the clear issue of principle, then to postpone it for 
more mature consideration, and, when beaten in these 
attempts, to purge it of its most glaringly offensive features. 
The debates were marked by some passages of arms between 
him and the Attorney-General, Sir Richard Bethell, after- 
wards Lord Chancellor Westbury, which were highly 
characteristic of the two men. The main ground of Mr. 
Gladstone's opposition to the Bill was the highest. Marriage 
was not only or chiefly a civil contract, but a ' mystery ' of the 



134 MR - GLADSTONE 

Christian religion. By the law of God it could not be so 
annulled as to permit of the re-marriage of the parties. 
Not content with his energetic and multiform resistance to 
the Bill in Parliament, he fought it in the Press. He 
contributed to the July number of the ' Quarterly Review ' 
an elaborate essay, which was freely quoted in the debate, 
and in which he argued the case against divorce with 
immense force and learning. ' Our Lord,' he says, ' has 
emphatically told us that, at and from the beginning, 
marriage was perpetual, and was on both sides single.' 
Again : ' Christian marriage is, according to Holy Scripture, 
a lifelong compact, which may sometimes be put in abey- 
ance by the separation of a couple, but which can never be 
rightfully dissolved so as to set them free during their joint 
lives to unite with other persons.' He dwelt with pathetic 
force on the injustice between man and woman of the 
proposed legislation, which would entitle the husband to 
divorce from an unfaithful wife, but would give no cor- 
responding protection to the woman ; and predicted the 
gloomiest consequences to the conjugal morality of the 
country from the erection of this new and odious tribunal. 
The general soundness of these views and these anticipa- 
tions he deliberately vindicated after a lapse of twenty-one 
years. 

But learning, eloquence, moral sentiment, and, above all, 
arguments from the New Testament and ecclesiastical 
tradition, were thrown away upon a Government over which 
Lord Palmerston presided. The Divorce Court was duly 
established ; and it is significant of Mr. Gladstone's state of 
mind at this season that, in the autumn of the year, he said 
to the friend who has been quoted before : ' I greatly felt 
being turned out of office. I saw great things to do. I longed 



'ECCLESIA DOCENS' 135 

to do them. I am losing the best years of my life out of my 
natural service. Yet I have never ceased to rejoice that I 
am not in office with Palmerston, when I have seen the 
tricks, the shufflings, the frauds he daily has recourse to as to 
his business. I rejoice not to sit on the Treasury Bench 
with him.' 

Ecclesiastical difficulties occupied at this time a great 
share of Mr. Gladstone's attention. The conduct of some 
of the Bishops in respect of the Divorce Act had been 
little less than scandalous, and he seems to have been pain- 
fully impressed by the weakness of the Church of England 
in her capacity of Ecclesia Docens, and by the need of some 
competent tribunal to express her authoritative judgment 
on disputed questions of doctrine and of ecclesiastical 
procedure. The following letter of Mr. Gladstone's may be 
profitably read in connexion with Sir James Graham's 
remark on his religious opinions quoted a few pages farther 
back: 

November 2, 1857. — It is neither disestablishment, nor even 
loss of dogmatic truth, which I look upon as the greatest danger 
before us, but it is the loss of those elementary principles of 
right and wrong on which Christianity itself must be built. The 
present position of the Church of England is gradually approxi- 
mating to the Erastian theory that the business of an establish- 
ment is to teach all sorts of doctrines and to provide Christian 
ordinances by way of comfort for all sorts of people, to be used 
at their own option. It must become, if uncorrected, in lapse 
•of time a thoroughly immoral position. Her case seems as if 
it were like that of Cranmer — to be disgraced first and then 
burned. Now, what I feel is that the Constitution of the Church 
provides the means of bringing controversy to issue ; not means 
that can be brought at all times, but means that are to be 
effectually, though less determinately, available for preventing 
the general devastation of doctrine, either by a positive heresy, or 



136 MR. GLADSTONE 

by that thesis I have named above, worse than any heresy. Con- 
sidering that the condition of the Church with respect to doctrine 
is gradually growing into an offence to the moral sense of man- 
kind, and that the question is, Shall we get, if we can, the means 
of giving expression to her mind ? I confess that I cannot be 
repelled by fears connected with the state of the episcopal 
body from saying, Yes. Let me have it if I can. For, regarding 
the Church as a privileged and endowed body, no less than as 
one with spiritual prerogatives, I feel these two things : If the 
mind of those who rule and of those who compose the Chwch is 
deliberately anti-Catholic., I have 170 right to seek a hiding-place 
within the pale of her possessions by keepi??g her in a condition of 
voicelessness, in which all are entitled to be there, because none 
are. That is, viewing her with respect to the enjoyment of her 
temporal advantages ; spiritually, how can her life be saved by 
stopping her from the exercise of functions essential to her con- 
dition ? It may be said, she is sick — wait till she is well. My 
answer is, she is getting more and more sick in regard to her 
own function of authoritatively declaring the truth ; let us see 
whether her being called upon so to declare it may not be the 
remedy, or a remedy at least. I feel certain that the want ot 
combined and responsible ecclesiastical action is one of the main 
evils, and that the regular duty of such action will tend to check 
the spirit of individualism, and to restore that belief in a Church 
which we have almost lost. The Bishops will act much better 
from acting in the way proposed, and the very law which 
commits it to them so to act will in itself not only do much for 
the ecclesiastical principles of our Constitution, but still more, 
I believe, for the healthiness of our moral tone. I can bear the 
reproaches of those who say, ' You believe so and so ; you have 
no business to believe that here : go elsewhere and believe it if 
you please.' I know that it would be much more just to retort 
them. But if I felt that I am myself trying to gag the Church 
of England, or to keep in her mouth the gag that is now there, 
I should not feel so sure that honesty was not compromised in 
my own measure by me. It is, in a word, the desire that honesty 
should be maintained at all costs which governs me in the 
main, and would govern me even if I saw less than I seem to 



THE CONSPIRACY BILL 1 37 

do of conservative and restorative action in the measure 
itself. 

When Parliament met in February, 1858, Lord Palmer- 
ston introduced a Bill to amend the law of conspiracy to 
murder. An attempt made by an Italian refugee — Felice 
Orsini — on the life of the Emperor Napoleon had created 
general consternation, and the adherents of the Emperor 
were loud in declaring that foreign conspirators in London 
were left unmolested by the authorities while they planned 
the murderous plots which they carried out in foreign 
capitals. To meet this reproach, Lord Palmerston pro- 
posed to make conspiracy to murder a felony, punishable 
with five years' penal servitude. This proposal was 
strenuously opposed from various quarters of the House, 
and mainly on the ground that the English Government 
had been actuated by an unduly anxious desire to 
execute the behests of the Emperor. Mr. Gladstone and 
the Peelites joined the Conservatives and a considerable 
number of the Liberals in opposing the Bill, and it was 
defeated by a majority of nineteen. Lord Palmerston 
resigned. Lord Derby succeeded him, with Mr. Disraeli 
as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House 
of Commons. 

Mr. Gladstone was now thoroughly out of harmony with 
Lord Palmerston, and in the April number of the ' Quarterly 
Review' he expressed his strong dissent from the French policy 
of the late Government, and especially from the 'ill-starred 
and detested measure ' for altering the law of conspiracy. 
Lord Palmerston, he said, had kept his seat on the top of 
Fortune's wheel, ' during such a number of its revolutions, 
as had all but covered what may be termed the utmost space 
allowed to the activity of human life. But suddenly a 



138 Mk. GLADSTONE 

difficulty that he himself had created, as if for the purpose, 
by a contempt of the most ordinary caution and the best- 
established customs, caught him in his giddy elevation, and 
precipitated the old favourite of millions into the depths of 
the Tartarus of politics, almost without a solitary cry of re- 
gret to mingle in the crash of his fall, or a word of sympathy 
to break its force.' 

It is said that Lord Derby, when he formed his Adminis- 
tration, had offered Mr. Gladstone the post of Secretary of 
State for the Colonies, and when, a few months later, in 
consequence of difficulties arising out of the Indian Mutiny, 
Lord Ellenborough resigned the Presidency of the Board 
of Control, we have it on high authority that the most 
strenuous efforts were made to induce Mr. Gladstone to fill 
the vacant place in the Cabinet. 

Mr. Greville writes on May 23, 1858 : 

Derby will get Gladstone if possible to take the India 
Board, and this will be the best thing that can happen. His 
natural course is to be at the head of a Conservative Govern- 
ment, and he may, if he acts with prudence, be the means of 
raising that party to something like dignity and authority, and 
emancipating it from its dependence on the discreditable and 
insincere support of the Radicals. 

Writing in 1862 to Bishop Wilberforce, Lord Beaconsfield 
said : ' I wish you could have induced Gladstone to have 
joined Lord Derby's Government when Lord Ellenborough 
resigned in 1858. It was not my fault that he did not : I 
almost went on my knees to him.' 

This is a truly Disraelitish touch : the astute old schemer 
1 almost on his knees ' to his dreaded and detested rival, im- 
ploring him to take a prominent place in the Cabinet of which 
he was himself the ruling spirit. It is a delightful picture, 



A CANDID FRIEND 1 39 

and the reason for the genuflexion is not far to seek. The 
Leader of the House of Commons, if he is a man of character 
and intellect, is in fact the Prime Minister. And if Mr. 
Disraeli could have induced Mr. Gladstone to become his 
colleague and submit to his leadership, he would have had 
the satisfaction of knowing that the one contemporary states- 
man whose powers and ambition were equal to his own was 
subordinated, in all probability forever, to his own tenacious 
will. When a man joins a political party in his fiftieth year, 
he cannot easily forsake it. Mr. Gladstone, if he became a 
Liberal, would challenge, and probably attain, the supreme 
place in Parliament. If he returned to the Tories, with Mr. 
Disraeli leading the House, he would be doomed to a position 
which, however high, was still less than the highest. There 
was indeed a grotesque idea of sending Mr. Disraeli to 
India as Governor-General. Had the field been thus left 
clear, it seems probable that Mr. Gladstone would have 
returned to his old associations, becoming Chancellor of 
the Exchequer in the Tory Government, and Leader of 
the House of Commons. Events, however, were other- 
wise ordered, and Mr. Disraeli continued to block the 
way. 

Though he saw, and prudently declined, the snare obli- 
gingly set for him by a master of parliamentary manoeuvre, 
Mr. Gladstone, unhampered by binding alliance with any 
political party, was at liberty to give to Lord Derby's 
Government his valuable support in debate whenever he 
deemed that they deserved it ; but, lest the entertainment 
should partake of sameness, he appeared not seldom in the 
character of the candid friend. During the course of the 
Session, we find Bishop Wilberforce, after a talk with Lord 
Aberdeen, making the significant entry in his journal, 



140 MR. GLADSTONE 

* Gladstone getting more averse to Disraeli.' On October 16, 
this conversation with Lord Aberdeen is recorded : 

' Will Gladstone ever rise to the first place ? ' 

1 Yes ; I have no doubt he will. But gradually, after an 
interval. He must turn the hatred of many into affection first ; 
and he will turn it if he has the opportunity given him. Glad- 
stone has some faults to overcome. He is too obstinate. If a 
man could be too honest, I should say he is too honest. He 
does not enough think of what other men think.' . . . 

'Whom is he to head?' 

* Oh ! it is impossible to say ! Time must show, and new 
combinations. I told John Russell that what I wished to see 
was, him in the House of Lords at the head of the Government, 
and Gladstone leading the Commons, . . . He could trust Glad- 
stone in such a post, which he could hardly any other man.' 

When a Government exists by sufferance and has to 
reckon on the periodical criticisms of a candid friend who 
is also a most formidable debater, prudence dictates to get 
him, if possible, out of the way ; and it was probably with 
this view that in 1858 Lord Derby asked Mr. Gladstone to 
go out as Lord High Commissioner Extraordinary to the 
Ionian Isles. The inhabitants of these islands, which had 
been since 181 5 under English protection, desired to unite 
themselves to Greece. The task of governing them from 
England had become difficult, and Mr. Gladstone was 
commissioned to examine into grievances and to report to 
the Government at home. He went out full of sympathy 
with the people, well acquainted with their history, and 
keenly alive to all their interests and associations. 

On December 3, he addressed the Senate of the Ionian 
Islands at Corfu, speaking in Italian. He announced that 
' the liberties guaranteed by the Treaties of Paris, and by 
Ionian law, are, in the eyes of her Majesty, sacred. On the 



THE IONIAN ISLANDS I4I 

other hand, the purpose for which she has sent me is not to 
enquire into the British Protectorate, but to examine in 
what way Great Britain may most honourably and amply 
discharge the obligations which, for purposes European and 
Ionian rather than British, she has contracted.' He con- 
cluded with a characteristic aspiration for the happiness 
of the Ionian people, to be secured by ' the double union 
of freedom with public order, and of knowledge with the 
Christian faith.' The Lord High Commissioner Extraor- 
dinary made an official tour of the islands, holding levees, re- 
ceiving deputations, and delivering harangues. He promised 
a full enquiry into every grievance, and offered an elaborate 
system of constitutional government, which Lord Aberdeen 
called fanciful. The Ionians, however, had one, and only 
one, object — they wished to be united with Greece. The 
Legislative Assembly of the Ionian Islands, sitting at Corfu, 
voted an address to the Queen praying for the annexation 
of their republic to Greece. The Lord High Commissioner 
despatched their petition to the Queen, and then, having 
fulfilled his mission, returned to England. 

A story highly characteristic both of Mr. Gladstone's 
severe regard for public economy, and of the first Lord 
Lytton's taste for display, is told in this connexion. Mr. 
Gladstone had taken the utmost pains to keep down 
the expenses of the mission, and was congratulating 
himself on his success, when, just towards the end, the 
Colonial Secretary, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, as he then 
was, desired that a special steamer might be chartered in 
order to convey a despatch to the Lord High Commis- 
sioner, and the cost of this steamer dislocated all Mr. 
Gladstone's economical schemes. 

When the Queen opened Parliament on February 3, 



142 MR. GLADSTONE 

1859, she announced in the Speech from the Throne that 
the attention of the Legislature would be called to the state 
of the law regulating the representation of the people. On 
the 28th, Mr. Disraeli unfolded the ministerial plan. It 
was a fanciful performance. The Government, said the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed, not to alter the 
limits of the franchise, but to introduce into boroughs a new 
kind of franchise founded on personal property, and to give 
a vote to persons having property to the amount of 10/. a 
year in the Funds, Bank Stock, and East India Stock. 
Persons having 60/. in a Savings Bank would, under the Bill, 
be electors for the borough in which they resided ; as also 
recipients of pensions in the naval, military, and civil services, 
amounting to 20/. a year. Lodgers, graduates, ministers of 
religion, solicitors, doctors, and schoolmasters were, under 
certain conditions, enfranchised, and the Government pro- 
posed to recognize the principle of identity of suffrage 
between the counties and towns. Two members of the 
Government promptly resigned rather than be parties to 
these proposals. Lord John Russell moved an amendment 
condemning interference with the franchise which enabled 
freeholders in boroughs to vote in counties, and demanding 
a wider extension of the suffrage in boroughs. Mr. Glad- 
stone, though agreeing with Lord John in these particulars, 
declined to support the amendment, because, if carried, it 
would upset the Government and bring in a weaker Adminis- 
tration. He did not profess to support the Government, 
but he desired to see a settlement of the question of 
reform, and he thought the present opportunity advan- 
tageous for such settlement. He pleaded eloquently for 
the retention of the small boroughs. He voted, therefore, 
for the second reading of the Bill, but it was lost by a 



AN ABRUPT TRANSITION 143 

majority of thirty-nine. Lord Derby advised the Queen to 
dissolve Parliament, and this was done on April 23. Mr. 
Gladstone was returned unopposed for the University 
of Oxford. The first Session of the new Parliament 
was opened by the Queen on June 7. An amendment 
to the Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne 
was moved by Lord Hartington. It was simply a 
vote of want of confidence in the Ministers. After three 
nights' debate, it was carried on June 10 by a majority of 
thirteen, Mr. Gladstone voting with the Government. 
Lord Derby and his colleagues immediately resigned. 
The Queen, naturally averse to the ' invidious and un- 
welcome task' of choosing between Lord Palmerston and 
Lord John Russell, turned, in her perplexity, to Lord 
Granville, who led the Liberal party in the House of Lords. 
He failed to form an Administration, and Lord Palmerston 
again became Prime Minister. Lord John Russell joined 
him as Foreign Secretary, and Mr. Gladstone as Chancellor 
of the Exchequer. A spirited opposition to Mr. Gladstone's 
candidature was immediately organized at Oxford. Lord 
Chandos, afterwards last Duke of Buckingham, came 
forward as the Conservative candidate. Professor Mansel, 
afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, was chairman of his 
committee. The traditions of the University forbade the 
candidates to address the electors by word of mouth, but Mr. 
Mansel issued a manifesto in which this passage occurred : 

By his acceptance of office, Mr. Gladstone must now be 
considered as giving his definite adhesion to the Liberal party, 
as at present reconstructed, and as approving of the policy of 
those who overthrew Lord Derby's Government on the late 
division. By his vote on that division, Mr. Gladstone expressed 
his confidence in the Administration of Lord Derby. By accept- 



144 MR - GLADSTONE 

ing office, he now expresses his confidence in the Administra- 
tion of Lord Derby's opponent and successor. 

Mr. Gladstone naturally took a very different view of this 
rather complicated transaction, and he explained it in a long 
and elaborate letter to Dr. Hawkins, the Provost of Oriel : 

Various differences of opinion, both on foreign and domestic 
matters, separated me, during great part of the Adminis- 
tration of Lord Palmerston, from a body of men with the 
majority of whom I had acted, and had acted in perfect 
harmony, under Lord Aberdeen. I promoted the vote of the 
House of Commons, in February of last year, which led to the 
downfall of that Ministry. Such having been the case, I thought 
it my clear duty to support, as far as I was able, the Govern- 
ment of Lord Derby. Accordingly, on the various occasions 
during the existence of the late Parliament when they were 
seriously threatened with danger of embarrassment, I found 
myself, like many other independent members, lending them 
such assistance as was in my power. And, although I could 
not concur in the late Reform Bill, and considered the dis- 
solution to be singularly ill-advised, I still was unwilling to found 
on such disapproval a vote in favour of the motion of Lord 
Hartington, which appeared to imply a course of previous oppo- 
sition, and which has been the immediate cause of the change 
of Ministers. Under these circumstances, it was, I think, 
manifest that, while I had not the smallest claim on the 
victorious party, my duty as towards the late advisers of the 
Crown had been fully discharged. It is hardly needful to say 
that, previously to the recent vote, there was no negotiation or 
understanding with me in regard to office ; but when Lord 
Palmerston had undertaken to form a Cabinet, he acquainted 
me with his desire that I should join it. . . . 

With respect to reform, I understood the counsels of Mr. 
Walpole and Mr. Henley, and I believe if they had been followed 
the subject of reform would in all likelihood have been settled 
at this date, without either a dissolution of Parliament or a 
change of Administration, But I have never understood the 
principles on which that subject has been managed since the 



SELF-JUSTIFICATION 145 

schism in the late Government. I also think it undeniable that 
the fact of the dissolution, together with the return of an adverse 
and now no longer indulgent majority, rendered the settlement 
of this question by the late Ministers impossible. I therefore 
naturally turn to the hope of its being settled by a Cabinet 
mainly constituted and led by the men together with whom 
I was responsible for framing and proposing - a Reform Bill in 

1S54 

I understand that misgiving" exists with respect to my sitting 
in a Cabinet of which Mr. Gibson is a member, and which Mr. 
Cobden is invited to join. The very same feelings were expressed, 
as I well recollect, when the late Sir William Molesworth entered 
the Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen. Sir William Molesworth never, 
to my knowledge, compromised his political independence ; and 
these apprehensions were, I think, not justified by the subsequent 
course of events. . . . 

Were I permitted the mode of address usual upon elections, 
I should, after this preliminary explanation, proceed to submit 
with confidence to my constituents that, as their representative, 
I have acted according" to the obligations which their choice 
and favour brought upon me, and that the Ministry which has 
thought fit to desire my co-operation is entitled in my person, as 
well as otherwise, to be exempt from condemnation at the first 
moment of its existence. Its title to this extent is perhaps the 
more clear, because among its early as well as its very gravest 
duties will be the proposal of a Reform Bill which, if it be 
accepted by Parliament, must lead, after no long interval, to a 
fresh general appeal to the people, and will thus afford a 
real opportunity of judging whether public men associated 
in the present Cabinet have or have not forfeited by that act, or 
by its legitimate consequences, any confidence of which they 
may previously have been thought worthy. 

The contest was brisk and animated, and when the poll 
closed Mr. Gladstone was returned by a majority of 191 
over Lord Chandos. He had polled twenty-eight more votes 
than on taking office in 1853, and his opponent thirty-six 

L 



I46 MR. GLADSTONE 

less. His separation from his old party Was now cdnipiete\ 
His hand was fairly set to the plough, and there was no 
more looking back. He had taken suit and service with the 
Liberals, and henceforward his growth in the principles of 
freedom and progress was to be continuous and often rapid. 

It is interesting to observe that the brilliant convert from 
Toryism soon became allied by a bond of peculiar sympathy 
with the Nestor of the Whigs ; and in the most crucial 
questions which engaged the attention of the Cabinet Lord 
John Russell and Mr. Gladstone agreed with and supported 
one another. Mr. Gladstone worked heartily, alike in the 
Cabinet and the House, for the Reform Bill on which 
Lord John Russell had set his affections ; and Lord John 
shared Mr. Gladstone's dislike of the immense expenditure 
on fortifications which Lord Palmerston compelled his 
colleagues to undertake. With reference to Mr. Gladstone's 
scruples on this subject, Lord Palmerston wrote this amaz- 
ing letter to the Queen : ' Viscount Palmerston hopes to be 
able to overcome his objections, but, if that should prove 
impossible, however great the loss to the Government by 
the retirement of Mr. Gladstone, it would be better to lose 
Mr. Gladstone than to run the risk of losing Portsmouth 
or Plymouth.' 

Not less extraordinary is the mode in which the Prime 
Minister announced to the Sovereign that his colleague's 
scruples had been overcome. 'Mr. Gladstone told Vis- 
count Palmerston this evening that he wished it to be 
understood that, though acquiescing in the step now taken 
about the fortifications, he kept himselt free to take such 
course as he may think fit upon that subject next year ; to 
which Viscount Palmerston entirely assented. That course 
will probably be the same which Mr. Gladstone has taken 



THE FRENCH TREATY 14; 

this year — namely, ineffectual opposition and ultimate ac- 
quiescence.' 

To this period belongs the following grotesque pas- 
sage from Lord Malmesbury's diary : * Gladstone, who was 
always fond of music, is now quite enthusiastic about negro 
melodies, singing them with the greatest spirit and enjoyment, 
never leaving out a verse, and evidently preferring such as 
" Camp Town Races." ' 

Having been elected Lord Rector of the University of 
Edinburgh, he was installed in office, on April 16, i860, and 
delivered his inaugural address on the work of Universities. 
From singing nigger songs, to discoursing on the possi- 
bilities of higher education and preparing financial state- 
ments, the transition is certainly abrupt, but all forms of 
effort seem to have been equally natural to the versatile 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Prince Consort writes : 
1 Gladstone is now the real Leader of the House of Commons, 
and works with an energy and vigour altogether incredible.' 

The Budget of i860 was marked by two distinctive fea- 
tures. It asked the sanction of Parliament to the com- 
mercial treaty which Mr. Cobden, acting in the first instance 
on his own responsibility, had privately arranged with the 
Emperor Napoleon, and it proposed the abolition of the 
duty on paper. By the commercial treaty France undertook 
to remove all prohibitory duties on British manufactures, and 
to reduce the duties on our raw materials ; while England 
was to abolish duties on foreign manufactures, and to reduce 
the duties on foreign wines. 

On February 15 Mr. Greville writes : 

When I left London a fortnight ago the world was anxiously 
expecting Gladstone's speech, in which he was to put the 
Commercial Treaty and the Budget before the world. His 

l 2 



148 MR. GLADSTONE 

own confidence and that of most of his colleagues in his suc- 
cess was unbounded, but many inveighed bitterly against the 
Treaty, and looked forward with great alarm and aversion to 
the Budget. Clarendon shook his head, Overstone pronounced 
against the Treaty, the ' Times ' thundered against it, and there 
is little doubt that it was unpopular, and becoming more so 
every day. Then came Gladstone's unlucky illness, which com- 
pelled him to put off his expose, and made it doubtful whether 
he would not be physically disabled from doing justice to the 
subject. His doctor says he ought to have taken two months' 
rest instead of two days. However, at the end of his two days' 
delay he came forth, and consensu omnium achieved one of the 
greatest triumphs that the House of Commons ever witnessed. 
Everybody I have heard from admits that it was a magnificent 
display, not to be surpassed in ability of execution, and that he 
carried the House of Commons completely with him. I can 
well believe it, for when I read the report of it next day it 
carried me along with it likewise. 

February 22. — I returned to town on Monday. The same 
night a battle took place in the House of Commons, in which 
Gladstone signally defeated Disraeli, and Government got so 
good a majority that it looks like the harbinger of complete 
success for their Treaty and their Budget. Everybody agrees 
nothing could be more brilliant and complete than Gladstone's 
triumph. 

February 26. — On Friday night Gladstone had another 
great triumph. He made a splendid speech, and obtained a 
majority of 116, which puts an end to the contest. He is now 
the great man of the day. . . . Clarendon, who watches him 
and has means of knowing his disposition, thinks that he is 
moving towards a Democratic union with Bright, the. effect of 
which will be increased income tax, and lowering the Estimates 
by giving up the defences of the country. 

A second feature of the Budget, scarcely less important 
than the Treaty with France, was the abolition of the duty 
on paper. That duty was a heavy tax on knowledge. To 
abolish it would be to make the production of all books 
easier and cheaper, and particularly to quicken the develop- 



THE PAPER DUTY 1 49 

ment of cheap newspapers. Vague alarms were aroused. 
Obscurantism and reaction did their best to perplex the 
public mind. All the forces which dread the spread of know- 
ledge among the masses of mankind took up arms against 
Mr. Gladstone's proposal, and made common cause with 
the manufacturers of paper and the proprietors of expen- 
sive newspapers. Manufacturers and proprietors organized 
themselves in defence of their lucrative monopolies. The 
ministerial proposal was not enthusiastically supported in 
the House of Commons : the second reading of the Bill 
had been carried by fifty-three, the third was carried by 
nine. In reference to this diminution of support the Queen 
received from Lord Palmerston a letter even more grossly 
disloyal to his colleague than those already quoted : 

This may probably encourage the House of Lords to throw 
out the Bill when it comes to their House, and Viscount 
Palmerston is bound in duty to say that, if they do so, they will 
perforin a good public service. Circumstances have greatly 
changed since the measure was agreed to by the Cabinet, and 
although it would undoubtedly have been difficult for the 
Government to have given up the Bill, yet, if Parliament were 
to reject it, the Government might well submit to so welcome a 
defeat. 

What Lord Palmerston predicted came to pass, and there 
can be little doubt that he did much to secure the accom- 
plishment of his own prediction. The diminution of the 
majority in the House of Commons encouraged the House 
of Lords, always ready and eager for such work, to oppose 
an effort for popular enlightenment. Lord Monteagle, a 
renegade Liberal, headed the resistance of the Peers, and 
he was reinforced by the dashing eloquence of Lord Derby 
and the argumentative skill of Lord Lyndhurst, whose speech 
was delivered on his eighty-eighth birthday. Thus em- 



150 MR. GLADSTONE 

boldened, the Lords threw out the Paper Duty Bill by a 
majority of 89. It was a momentous vote. The House of 
Commons, in the exercise of its undoubted privilege, had 
determined to remit a tax ; the House of Lords determined 
to continue it. This act of the Peers was in effect an act 
of taxation, and as such was vehemently and indignantly 
repudiated by all lovers of constitutional freedom. Lord 
Palmerston, willing to avert a conflict between the Houses, 
appointed a Committee to enquire into precedents. This 
was a merely dilatory motion. After two months' enquiry, 
the Committee presented a guarded and colourless report, on 
which Lord Palmerston moved some resolutions asserting in 
very general terms the right of the Commons to impose taxa- 
tion, and, in effect, apologized for the action of the Lords. 
This gave Mr. Gladstone his opportunity. His ardent tem- 
per, ruffled by the rejection of his financial scheme, had not 
been soothed by Lord Palmerston's sportsmanlike consola- 
tion : ' Of course you are mortified and disappointed ; but 
your disappointment is nothing to mine, who had a horse 
with whom I hoped to win the Derby, and he went amiss 
at the last moment.' He had been very near resigning, and 
he now gave vent to his indignation in a speech aimed as 
directly as the decencies of official life would permit against 
Lord Palmerston. He declared that the action of the Lords 
was a gigantic innovation. The House of Commons had 
the undoubted right of selecting the manner in which the 
people should be taxed, and they were bound to preserve 
that precious deposit intact. The resolutions of the 
Committee were all very well in their way, but he was pre- 
pared to go further. He reserved to himself the right to 
take such action as should give effect to the resolution of 
the House of Commons. 



'MAGNIFICENTLY MAD* I 5 I 

This speech was pronounced by Lord Russell ' magnifi- 
cently mad,' and Lord Granville said, on July 7, that ' it was 
a toss-up whether Gladstone resigned or not, and that, if 
he did, it would break up the Liberal party.' But every- 
thing calmed down, and this action which Mr. Gladstone 
had threatened was taken in the Budget of the following 
year (1861), and in an adroit and effective form. The 
chief proposals of that Budget, including the repeal of the 
duty on paper, instead of being divided, as in previous 
years, into several Bills, were included in one. By this 
device the House of Lords was bound to acquiesce in the 
repeal of the paper duty, or else to incur the responsibility 
of rejecting the whole financial scheme for the year. Of 
course, the Peers and their henchmen grumbled at this 
device. Lord Robert Cecil, afterwards Lord Salisbury, 
distinguished himself by the studied rudeness of his attack. 
He had said that Mr. Gladstone's conduct was only worthy 
of an attorney. He now begged to apologize to the 
attorneys. They were honourable men, and they would 
have scorned the course which the Queen's Ministers had 
pursued. An apostate Whig, by protesting that the Budget 
gave a mortal stab to the Constitution, enabled Mr. Glad- 
stone to make an excellent retort : 

I want to know, To what Constitution does it gives a mortal 
stab ? In my opinion it gives no mortal stab, and no stab at 
all, to any Constitution that we are bound to care for. But, on 
the contrary, so far as it alters anything in the most recent 
course of practice, it alters in the direction of restoring that 
good old Constitution which took its root in Saxon times, which 
grew under the Plantagenets, which endured the iron repression 
of the Tudors, which resisted the aggressions of the Stuarts, and 
which has come to its full maturity under the House of Bruns- 
wick. I think that is the Constitution, if I may presume to say 



152 MR. GLADSTONE 

so, which it is our duty to guard, and which— if, indeed, the 
proceedings of this year can be said to affect it at all— will be all 
the better for the operation. But the Constitution which my 
right hon. friend worships is a very different affair. The Con- 
stitution laid down by my right hon. friend began with this : 
'There is to be no vital division of function and office' — if 
I understood him rightly, and if not he will correct me—' be- 
tween the House of Commons and the House of Lords, with 
regard to fixing the income and charge of the country from 
year to year, both being equally responsible,' which simply 
means that neither will be responsible at all. Now, so far as 
that Constitution is concerned, with great respect for the 
abilities and candour and ingenuity of my right hon. friend, I 
at once confess my strong conviction that the sooner it receives 
a mortal stab the better. 

The Bill passed safely through the House of Commons, 
and though the Duke of Rutland was rash enough to urge 
the House of Lords to throw it out, Lord Derby was too 
prudent to sanction such a course, and it passed into law 
without a division. The Peers had tried conclusions with 
Mr. Gladstone, and had come off second-best. 

On August 29, 1 86 1, Mr. Gladstone addressed to a 
member of the Royal Commission on Public Schools a 
remarkable letter on the merits of classical education. The 
following passage deserves citation, both as an interesting 
contribution to an important controversy and as a valuable 
illustration of the writer's mind : 

The modern European civilization from the Middle Age 
downwards is the compound of two great factors, the Christian 
religion for the spirit of man, and the Greek (and, in a secondary 
degree, the Roman) discipline for his mind and intellect. St. 
Paul is the Apostle of the Gentiles, and is in his own person 
a symbol of this great wedding. The place, for example, of 
Aristotle and Plato in Christian education is not arbitrary nor 
in principle mutable. The materials of what we call classical 



NORTH AND SOUTH I 53 

training were prepared, and, we have a right to say, were ad- 
visedly and providentially prepared, in order that it might 
become, not a mere adjunct, but (in mathematical phrase) the 
complement of Christianity in its application to the culture of 
the human being, as a being formed both for this world and for 
the world to come. 



In April, 1862, Mr. Gladstone delivered at Manchester, 
before the Association of Lancashire and Cheshire 
Mechanics' Institutes, an eloquent and feeling address on 
the Prince Consort, who had died in the preceding Decem- 
ber, and pointed out the eminent services which he had 
rendered to the diffusion of useful knowledge and popular 
cultivation. 

To the year 1862 belongs a notable instance of the 
fallibility which besets even the cleverest men, with the 
amplest opportunities of knowledge, when they trust them- 
selves to speculate upon the issue of political events. Civil 
war had broken out in America. A quarrel, originating in 
a question of constitutional law, had become complicated 
and infinitely embittered by the introduction of a moral 
element. Whatever the official pretext, men were really 
fighting, not to try the claim of each State in the 
Union to autonomy, but to decide whether slavery, odious 
alike to God and man, should still be numbered among 
the institutions of the American republic. The Southern 
States had begun hostilities. They had formed themselves 
into a confederacy and elected a President. The English 
Government issued a proclamation of neutrality, warning 
all subjects of the Queen against helping either of the 
belligerents. This was practically a recognition of the 
South as a separate Power, and the resentment of the North 
was naturally aroused. England had rushed to extend 



154 MR. GLADSTONE 

equality of treatment to a friendly State and its rebellious 
subjects. On October 7, 1862, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, speaking at Newcastle, used words which 
deepened this unfortunate impression. ' We may have our 
own opinions about slavery, we may be for or against the 
South, but there is no doubt, I think, about this— Jefferson 
Davis and the other leaders of the South have made an 
army ; they are making, it appears, a navy ; and they have 
made, gentlemen, what is more than either, they have made 
a nation. . . . We may anticipate with certainty the success 
of the Southern States, so far as regards effecting their 
separation from the North. I, for my own part, cannot 
but believe that that event is as certain as any event yet 
future and contingent can be.' This utterance created an 
immense sensation at the time, and five years afterwards Mr. 
Gladstone, having, in the interval, been taught by events, 
made his confession of error in these memorable words : 

I must confess that I was wrong ; that I took too much 
upon myself in expressing such an opinion. Yet the motive 
was not bad. My sympathies were then — where they had long 
before been, where they are now — with the whole American 
people. I probably, like many Europeans, did not understand 
the nature and working of the American Union. I had im- 
bibed conscientiously, if erroneously, an opinion that twenty 
or twenty-four millions of the North would be happier and 
would be stronger (of course assuming that they would hold 
together) without the South than with it, and also that the 
negroes would be much nearer to emancipation under a Southern 
Government than under the old system of the Union, which 
had not at that date been abandoned, and which always appeared 
to me to place the whole power of the North at the command 
of the slave-holding interests of the South. As far as regards 
the special or separate interest of England in the matter, I, 
differing from many others, had always contended that it was 
best for our interest that the Union should be kept entire. 



155 



CHAPTER VII 

Growth in Liberal principles — The General Election of 1S65 — Defeated 
at Oxford — Returned for South Lancashire — The Death of Lord Pal- 
merston — Leader of the House of Commons — The Reform Bill — 
The Cave of Adullam — Defeat and resignation. 

A calm, which could scarcely be described as holy, 
but was certainly profound, had settled down on English 
politics. Europe and America were disturbed by wars and 
rumours of wars, but England was at peace. The revenue 
advanced by leaps and bounds. Material prosperity exer- 
cised its sedative influence. Political agitation had died 
away for lack of workable material. Much of this tran- 
quillity was due to Lord Palmerston. That remarkable 
man, now on the verge of eighty, had been established by 
the election of 1859 in a position of undisputed supremacy. 
His policy abroad had been active and turbulent enough : 
at home it was easy-going to the point of lethargy. His 
strength was to sit still. Yielding to the urgent representa- 
tions of Lord John Russell, he had presented a very mild 
Reform Bill in i860. The Bill had proved, as it deserved 
to be, abortive, and it became generally understood that, 
as long as Lord Palmerston lived, there was to be no more 
nonsense of this sort. When the Radical butcher at 
Tiverton asked him why he and his colleagues did not bring 
in another Reform Bill, he airily replied, ' Because we are 



156 MR. GLADSTONE 

not geese ' ; and this was all the satisfaction that sincere 
reformers, and Liberals who were in earnest about their 
beliefs, could obtain from their venerable leader. No 
wonder that under these circumstances the relations between 
Lord Palmerston and his supporters became a little strained, 
and that thoughtful men, regarding the enormous interests 
which hung upon the single thread of a life already far 
prolonged, began to speculate on the forces which his 
death would loose, and to enquire who was to direct them. 
The Parliament of 1859-65 is interesting, not for anything 
which it accomplished, but because it afforded the first 
indications of tremendous changes which were soon to 
come. Everyone saw and felt the tempest which was 
looming, and only wondered when it would break and what 
it would destroy. At such times of subdued but eager 
expectation there is peculiar value in the observations of a 
shrewd onlooker who, free from the distracting bias of 
party, can regard political events with the penetrating but 
unimpassioned gaze which a biologist or an astronomer fixes 
upon the phenomena of nature. Such an onlooker was 
Bishop Wilberforce. 

In 1863 he writes : 'That wretched Pam seems to me 
to get worse and worse. There is not a particle of veracity 
or noble feeling that I have ever been able to trace in him. 
He manages the House of Commons by debauching it, 
making all parties laugh at one another : the Tories at the 
Liberals, by his defeating all Liberal measures ; the Liberals 
at the Tories, by their consciousness of getting everything 
that is to be got in Church and State ; and all at one an- 
other, by substituting low ribaldry for argument, bad jokes 
for principle, and an openly-avowed, vainglorious, imbecile 



'GLADSTONE WILL BE PREMIER' 1 57 

vanity as a panoply to guard himself from the attacks of all 
thoughtful men. I think if his life lasts long, it must cost 
us the slight remains of Constitutional Government which 
exist among us.' 

On October 17 in the same year, the Bishop records 
that Mr. Speaker Denison said : ' I now anticipate that 
Gladstone will be Premier. Neither party has any leader. 
I hope that Gladstone may get support from the Conserva- 
tives who now support Palmerston. Palmerston specially 
well and young.' A few days later : ' Long talk with 
Gladstone as to Premiership ; he for acting under John 
Russell.' 

On December 10 he writes : 'Hay ward says that Lord 
Palmerston is far better this year than last. " Last year I 
could beat him at billiards, but this year he plays so much 
better a game that he beat me easily." . . . Sir H. Holland, 
who got back safe from all his American rambles, has been 
taken by Palmerston through the river at Broadlands and 
lies very ill. The Dean of Lincoln (Gamier) is just dead, 
and another deanery for Palmerston to abuse vacant.' 
1 Lord Palmerston's wicked appointments meet us here at 
every turn.' 

On July 8, 1864, a vote of want of confidence in the 
Government was carried in the House of Lords. Just 
before he went down to vote for it the Bishop wrote to Mr. 
Gladstone : ' Supporting what is counter to you gives me a 
pang I cannot describe. Against you ', in the long run, I do 
not believe it will be. Anything which breaks up, or tends 
to break up, Palmerston's supremacy must bring you nearer 
to the post in which I long to see you, and, if I live, shall 
see you.' On December 7, 1864, he wrote : ' Palmerston 
seems stronger than ever ! Gladstone, I think, is certainly 



1 58 MR. GLADSTONE 

gaining power. You hear now almost everyone say he 
must be the future Premier, and such sayings tend greatly 
to accomplish themselves.' On February 7, 1865, he writes : 
1 What Gladstone is to head is all uncertain. Walpole still 
thinks that, having gone a certain way with the Radicals, 
he will on some Church measure wheel round and break 
wholly with them. ... I do not believe Pam thinks of 
retiring ; he means, I believe, to dissolve as soon as the 
Estimates are voted in the summer.' But on July 2 : 
1 Old Palmerston is breaking, and I think it very doubtful 
if he. can meet another Parliament.' 

These extracts speak for themselves. Lord Palmerston 
was in high favour with the easy-going and the well-to-do. 
An aristocrat by birth and association, he was the ideal 
politician of the middle classes. But his supporters were 
confined to no one social section. Everyone who preferred 
banter to argument, and who found lazy swimming with 
the stream more congenial than a bold stand for principle, 
delighted in the octogenarian worldling. They admired 
and liked a man who mocked at enthusiasm and despised 
earnestness ; who hectored and bullied on the continental 
stage, and ruthlessly though jocosely burked all efforts for 
reform at home. No one who was in earnest, whatever his 
convictions, could make terms with Lord Palmerston. It 
is easy to guess the amount ot sympathy which existed 
between him and Mr. Gladstone, with whom every opinion 
was a belief, and every feeling a passion ; who, from boy- 
hood to old age, could never take anything lightly ; and who 
regarded a jest on a serious subject as flat blasphemy. 
Indeed, some hint of Mr. Gladstone's sentiments towards 
his chief may be gleaned from his conversations with 
Bishop Wilberforce. Lord Palmerston, on his part, was 



THE INCOMPATIBLES I59 

ilot slow to reciprocate these compliments. Lord Shaftes- 
bury writes : ' Palmerston had but two real enemies, Bright 
and Gladstone. . . . Palmerston knew all this, but never 
mentioned it with asperity. Once he said to me, though 
he seldom dealt in predictions, " Gladstone will soon have 
it all his own way ; and, whenever he gets my place, we 
shall have strange doings." He feared his character, his 
views, and his temperament greatly. He rarely spoke 
severely of anyone. Bright and Gladstone were the only 
two of whom he used strong language. He saw clearly, but 
without any strong sentiment, Gladstone's hostility. He 
remarked to me one day, when we were discussing some 
appointments, " Well, Gladstone has never behaved to me, 
as a colleague, in such a way as to demand from me 
any consideration." And this he said with the air and 
tone of a man who perceived the enmity but did not care 
for it.' 

The two men were by temperament incompatible. 
And the incompatibility which nature had begun, every 
circumstance of training and life had intensified. The 
marvel is, not that they had scant sympathy with one 
another, but that they should have worked together and 
preserved the outward semblance of harmony so long as (in 
spite of Mr. Gladstone's frequent threats of resignation) 
they contrived to do 

But the very qualities which made Mr. Gladstone un 
congenial to Lord Pahnerston, and to the whole Palmers- 
tonian school, endeared him to the more advanced section 
of the Liberal party. He himself once defined a Radical 
as a Liberal in earnest, and his earnestness made him the 
idol of the Radicals. His high aspirations, his earnest 
faith, his constantly widening sympathy with progress and 



l6o MR. GLADSTONE 

freedom, and his steady recognition of the moral element 
in politics, won to his side thousands of electors to whom 
his constitutional lore was an antiquarian curiosity, and his 
theology an irritating and dangerous delusion. Growth 
has always been the most marked characteristic of Mr. 
Gladstone's intelligence, and his growth during these quiet 
years of waiting and preparation was not the less rapid, 
although it was in some sense out of sight and underground. 
In two significant instances it was permitted to show itself, 
and each of these instances contained the germ of great 
events. 

On May n, 1864, a private member submitted to the 
House of Commons a Bill for reducing the parliamentary 
franchise in boroughs from 10/. rental to 6/. The Bill, of 
course, was lost, but the debate was rendered memorable 
by Mr. Gladstone's speech. Two years before, in private 
conversation, he had declared himself strongly in favour of 
an extension of the franchise. He now supported the pro- 
posed reduction. He declared that the burden of proof 
rested upon those 'who would exclude forty-nine fiftieths 
of the working classes from the franchise. It is for them 
to show the unworthiness, the incapacity, and the miscon- 
duct of the working class.' ' I say,' he repeated, ' that every 
man who is not presumably incapacitated by some considera- 
tion of personal unfitness or political danger is morally 
entitled to come within the pale of the Constitution.' 

We are told that the working classes do not agitate for an 
extension of the franchise ; but is it desirable that we should wait 
until they do agitate ? In my opinion, agitation by the working 
classes upon any political subject whatever, is a thing not to be 
waited for, not to be made a condition previous to any parliamen- 
tary movement, but, on the contrary, is a thing to be deprecated, 



THE WORKING-MAN AND THE VOTE l6l 

and, if possible, anticipated and prevented by wise and provi- 
dent measures. An agitation by the working classes is not like 
an agitation by the classes above them, the classes possessing 
leisure. The agitation of the classes having leisure is easily con- 
ducted. It is not with them that every hour of their time has 
a money value ; their wives and children are not dependent on 
the strictly reckoned results of those hours of labour. When a 
working man finds himself in such a condition that he must 
abandon that daily labour on which he is strictly dependent for 
his daily bread, when he gives up the profitable application of 
his time, it is then that, in railway language, the danger-signal 
is turned on, for he does it only because he feels a strong neces- 
sity for action, and a distrust of the rulers who, as he thinks, have 
driven him to that necessity. The present state of things, I re- 
joice to say, does not indicate that distrust ; but if we admit 
this as matter of fact, we must not, along with the admission, 
allege the absence of agitation on the part of the working 
classes as a sufficient reason why the Parliament of England and 
the public mind of England should be indisposed to entertain 
the discussion of this question. 

Protesting against the ' inarticulate reasoning ' of Tories, 
who, after their manner, expressed their dissent in groans, 
he went on to say that ' fitness for the franchise, when it is 
shown to exist, is not repelled on sufficient grounds from the 
portals of the Constitution by the allegation that things 
are well as they are.' Self-command, respect for order, 
patience under suffering, confidence in the law, regard for 
superiors— these were the qualifications for citizenship, and 
they had been signally displayed by the working men of 
England in the trying winter of 1862. As to their prac- 
tical fitness for public work, he cited the success of the 
co-operative movement which had emanated from Roch- 
dale, and argued that men so eminently qualified to 
manage their own affairs had intelligence sufficient to 
guide them in the use of a vote. No wonder that this 

M 



1 62 MR. GLADSTONE 

generous declaration was received with dismay by Tories 
and reactionary Liberals, nor that an Irish lawyer, who fol- 
lowed Mr. Gladstone in the debate, deplored the absence of 
Lord Palmerston, who, he thought, would have given ' an 
unanswerable reply to his refractory Chancellor of the 
Exchequer.' 

In March, 1865, Mr. Dillwyn, the Radical member 
for Swansea, moved ' that the present position of the Irish 
Church Establishment is unsatisfactory, and calls for the 
early attention of her Majesty's Government.' No one 
who has carefully read the earlier pages of this memoir 
can be surprised at what then occurred. The Govern- 
ment, of course, could not accept the resolution, but the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that they were not 
prepared to deny the abstract truth of the former part 
of it. They could not assert that the present position of 
the Establishment was satisfactory. The Irish Church, as 
she then stood, was in a false position. She ministered only 
to one-eighth or one-ninth of the whole community. It was 
much more difficult, however, to decide upon the practical 
aspect of the question, and no one had ventured to suggest 
the remedy required for the existing condition. Conse- 
quently, ' we feel that we ought to decline to follow the 
hon. gentleman into the lobby and declare that it is the 
duty of the Government to give their early attention to the 
subject ; because if we gave a vote to that effect we should 
be committing one of the gravest offences of which a 
Government could be guilty — namely, giving a deliberate 
and solemn promise to the country, which promise it would 
be out of our power to fulfil.' The debate was adjourned, 
and was not resumed during the Session, but the speech 
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer caused great excite- 



THE IRISH CHURCH 163 

ment. Mr., afterwards Chief Justice, Whiteside promptly 
denounced it as intended to be fatal to the Established 
Church of Ireland when an opportunity should arise. Sir 
Stafford Northcote wrote on March 29 : 

Gladstone made a terribly long stride in his downward pro- 
gress last night, and denounced the Irish Church in a way 
which shows how, by and by, he will deal not only with it, but 
with the Church of England too . . . Was evidently annoyed 
that his colleagues had decided on opposing Dillwyn's motion. 
He laid down the doctrines that the tithe was national property, 
and ought to be dealt with by the State in the manner most ad- 
vantageous to the people ; and that the Church of England was 
only national because the majority of the people still belonged 
to her. ... It is plain that he must hold that the tithe 
of Wales, where the Dissenters are in a majority, does not 
properly belong to the Church ; and by and by we shall find 
that he will carry the principle a great deal further. It is sad 
to see what he is coming to. 

Mr. Gladstone's opponents in the University of Oxford 
printed his speech, and circulated it, to his prejudice, among 
his constituents. One of these, Dr. Hannah, Warden of Trinity 
College, Glenalmond, wrote to Mr. Gladstone for an ex- 
planation, and received the following reply, dated June 8, 
1865: 

My reasons are, I think, plain. First, because the question 
is remote, and apparently out of all bearing on the practical 
politics of the day, I think it would be for me worse than 
superfluous to determine upon any scheme, or basis of a 
scheme, with respect to it. Secondly, because it is difficult ; 
even if I anticipated any likelihood of being called upon to 
deal with it, 1 should think it right to take no decision before- 
hand on the mode of dealing with the difficulties. But the 
first reason is that which chiefly weighs. As far as I know, 
my speech signifies pretty clearly the broad distinction which 
I make between the abstract and the practical views of the 

M 2 



1 64 MR. GLADSTONE 

subject, and I think I have stated strongly my sense of the re- 
sponsibility attaching to the opening of such a question, except in 
a state of things which gave promise of satisfactorily closing it. 
For this reason it is that I have been so silent about the matter, 
and may probably be so again ; but I could not, as a Minister 
and as member for Oxford University, allow it to be debated 
an indefinite number of times and remain silent. One thing, 
however, I may add, because I think it a clear landmark. In 
any measure dealing with the Irish Church, I think (though I 
scarcely expect ever to be called on to share in such a measure) 
the Act of Union must be recognized, and must have important 
consequences, especially with reference to the position of the 
hierarchy. I am much obliged to you for writing, and I hope 
you will see and approve my reasons for not wishing to carry my 
own mind further into a question lying at a distance I cannot 
measure. 

In this year Mr. Gladstone's term of office as Lord 
Rector of the University of Edinburgh expired, and he took 
leave of the University in an interesting discourse on the 
place of Ancient Greece in the Providential Order. 

The General Election was now near at hand. There 
was no burning question, no cry, nothing to 'go to the 
country on.' But then, again, on the other hand, there 
was the less demand for these commodities, because the 
Government was not seriously threatened. In spite of 
the murmurs of high-flying Tories and the fierce disappoint- 
ment of baffled reformers, the mass of the country seemed 
pretty well satisfied with Lord Palmerston and his Ad- 
ministration. This satisfaction arose, in great part, from the 
flourishing condition in which the finances of the country 
had been established by the colleague whom Lord Palmers- 
ton so much disliked and dreaded. 

The election now impending was charged with great 
consequences to Mr. Gladstone's career. His seat at 



OXFORD OR LANCASHIRE ? 165 

Oxford was seriously imperilled. The further he had gone 
from Toryism, and the more nearly he had approached, 
through association with Whiggery (for he never was himself 
a Whig), to Liberalism, the more he had weakened his hold 
upon the constituency. He had, indeed, a numerous and 
powerful following of devoted friends, but the average elector 
of the University viewed him with increasing suspicion. 
We saw how his attitude towards national education in- 
volved him in a contest in 1853. In 1855 Bishop Wilber- 
force writes : ' A great deal of talk with Gladstone about 
his seat. He disposed to relinquish it, and on noble 
grounds — that the University would get a better repre- 
sentative if they had a free choice than if merely brought 
in by the bigotry party in opposition to him.' In i860 
Mr. Gladstone writes : ' Without having to complain, I 
am entirely sick and weary of the terms upon which I hold 
the seat.' In 1861 the following correspondence passed 
between him and two of his chief supporters at Oxford : 

The Bishop of Oxford to the Right Hoji. W. E. Gladstone. 

Cuddesdon Palace, April 8, 1S61. 

My dear Gladstone, — I have seen to-day the Rector of 
Exeter, and he asked me to say to you that, though he has sent 
you the petition against paper-voting to present, he does not 
wish you to say a word upon it, being more and more persuaded 
that any opposition to the Bill from you would injure you greatly, 
and caring more for keeping your seat than throwing out the 
Bill ; so far the Rector. As I know not your mind, nor whether 
you wish for opinions, I give none on the great question of your 
seat. Only let me say : 1. That if I can be of any use, you 
know how freely you may command me ; 2. That I can hardly 
bear the thought of the degradation to us of your ceasing to be 
our Member. — I am, ever very affectionately yours, 

S. Oxon. 



1 66 MR. GLADSTONE 

The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone to the Bishop of Oxford. 

II Downing Street, July n, 1861. 
On the question of the seat, obliged as I am to write in 
haste, I cannot do better than send you a copy of a letter which 
I have just addressed to the Rector of Exeter. 

To-morrow Palmer's prospects are to be considered. I 
think, so far as my personal feelings are concerned, that they 
may not be good enough to justify my taking the South 
Lancashire seat. 

The Right Hon. IV. E. Gladstone to the Rector oj 
Exeter College. 

11 Downing Street, July II, 1861. 

My dear Rector of Exeter, — If I have apparently neglected 
to answer your most kind letters, it has been from great anxiety 
to advance to a stage, before replying, at which my reply might 
be worth your having. 

I have never forgotten the ties which bind me to my kind 
and generous supporters in the University, and no prospect 
elsewhere could induce me to quit them, unless I could think 
that at a juncture like this they might, with every prospect of 
success, support a candidate who would fill my place to their 
full and general satisfaction. Recent events have made it 
requisite to consider carefully Mr. Palmer's position. He writes 
to his brother by this post on the subject, and we are both alike 
sensible that no time is to be lost. 

I make no great demand on your power of belief when I 
assure you that it has not been any selfish motive which induced 
me to open, in the second year of Parliament, or rather to allow 
to be opened, the idea of my quitting the seat to which I have 
been elected. It will be very pleasant to me should the balance 
of public considerations, when we have ascertained it (I trust 
to-morrow or next day) to the best of our power, admit of my 
retaining my position. To quit Oxford under any circumstances 
would be to me a most sad, even if it ever become a prudent, 
and even a necessary, measure. — Believe me, with great regard, 
sincerely yours, 

W. E. Gladstone. 



'farewell' 167 

And so matters went on, Mr. Gladstone feeling that 
every year relaxed his hold upon the University, but still 
shrinking with natural reluctance from the severance of a 
bond which had brought in its time so much honour and 
so much happiness. Two important steps in the con- 
flict were these. In 1864 a strong committee induced Mr. 
Gathorne Hardy, afterwards Lord Cranbrook,and then mem- 
ber for Leominster, to consent to contest the seat with Mr. 
Gladstone at the next election ; and an Act was passed 
which, by establishing the system of voting-papers, enabled 
all the country clergymen and non-resident M.A.'s to 
swamp the votes of the resident and effective members of 
the University. The determination of the High Tory party 
to defeat Mr. Gladstone at any cost was widely deplored, 
not only or chiefly by Liberals, but by all believers in 
orderly and regulated progress. Radicals rejoiced in the 
prospect that their favourite politician would soon be un- 
shackled by academic and ecclesiastical obligations : but 
Bishop Wilberforce, in spite of his hatred of the Whig Govern- 
ment, used his strongest endeavours to save Mr. Gladstone's 
seat, and Lord Palmerston said, with friendly frankness, ' He 
is a dangerous man. Keep him in Oxford, and he is partially 
muzzled ; but send him elsewhere, and he will run wild/ 

Parliament was dissolved on July 6, 1865. When 
the voting at Oxford closed, Mr. Gladstone was at the 
bottom of the poll. On July 18, he issued his valedictory 
address : 

After an arduous connexion of eighteen years, I bid you, 
respectfully, farewell. My earnest purpose to serve you, my 
many faults and shortcomings, the incidents of the political 
relation between the University and myself, established in 1847, 
so often questioned in vain, and now, at length, finally dissolved, 



1 68 MR. GLADSTONE 

I leave to the judgment of the future. It is one imperative duty, 
and one alone, which induces me to trouble you with these few 
parting words — the duty of expressing my profound and lasting 
gratitude for indulgence as generous, and for support as warm 
and enthusiastic in itself, and as honourable from the character 
and distinctions of those who have given it, as has, in my belief, 
ever been accorded by any constituency to any representative. 

In the following correspondence, it is touching to ob- 
serve the sharp sense of unworthy and ungenerous treatment, 
struggling with the proud humility which shrinks from a 
public exhibition of its open wounds : 

The Bishop of Oxford to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone. 

Glenthorne, Lynmouth, July 18, 1865. 
My dear Gladstone, — I have just received the account of the 
numbers polled at Oxford up to last night, and I cannot forbear 
expressing to you my grief and indignation at the result. It is 
needless for me to say that everything I could with propriety do 
I did heartily to save our University this great loss and dishonour, 
as well from a loving honour of you. But the truth is that, 
except on the footing which Sir R. Peel's last contest destroyed, 
the University of Oxford is about the worst constituency existing 
for a man before his age in intellectual development and above 
it in self-respect. Of course, if half of these men had known 
what I know of your real devotion to our Church, that would 
have outweighed their hatred of a Government which gave 
Waldegrave to Carlisle, and Baring to Durham, and the youngest 
Bishop on the Bench to York, and supported Westbury in seeking 
to deny for England the faith of our Lord. But they could not 
be made to understand the truth, and have inflicted on the 
University and the Church the gross indignity of rejecting the 
best, noblest, and truest son of each, in order to punish Shaftes- 
bury and Westbury. You were too great for them. — In all 
heartiest affection and honour, I am, my dear Gladstone, most 
truly yours, 

S. OXON. 



AN ORACULAR SENTENCE 1 69 

Hawarden, July 21, 1S65. 

My dear Bishop of Oxford, — Your letter comes amid many 
and most kind ones, but I am deeply sensible of its overflowing 
kindness. I do not doubt that this, to me, great event is all for 
good, and the consolations of cordial support, indulgent judg- 
ment, and warm affection are given me in abundance —in more 
than abundance by you. 

Do not conceal from yourself that my hands are much 
weakened. It was only as representing Oxford that a man whose 
opinions are disliked and suspected could expect or could have 
a title to be heard. I look upon myself now as a person wholly 
extraneous on one great class of questions : with respect to legis- 
lative and Cabinet matters I am still an unit. But as far as my 
will, my time, my thoughts are concerned, they are where they 
ever were. 

I have had too much of personal collision with Lord West- 
bury to be a fair judge in his case, but, in your condemnation of 
him, as respects attacks upon Christian doctrine, do not forget 
either what coadjutors he has had, or with what painful and 
lamentable indifference not only the public, but so many of 
the clergy, so many of the warmest religionists, looked on. 

Do not join with others in praising me because I am not 
angry, only sorry, and that deeply. For my revenge — which I 
do not desire, but would baffle if I could — all lies in that little 
word ' Future' in my address, which I wrote with a conscious- 
ness that it is deeply charged with meaning, and that that which 
shall come will come. 

There have been two great deaths, or transmigrations of 
spirit, in my political existence — one, very slow, the breaking of 
ties with my original party ; the other, very short and sharp, 
the breaking of the tie with Oxford. There will probably be a 
third, and no more. 

Again, my dear Bishop, I thank you for bearing with my 
waywardness, and manifesting, in the day of need, your con- 
fidence and attachment.— Ever affectionately yours, 

W. E. Gladstone. 



lyo MR. GLADSTONE 

July 24, 1865. 

My dear Gladstone, — I thank you very specially for your 
kind language to me. 

There is one expression of yours which I wish I were quite 
sure I understood aright — ' there will probably be a third, and 
no more/ And now will you let me once more say that your 
present position seems to me energetically to require you to 
take (when the occasion comes) the step which Canning took 
when he claimed the Premiership ? I put aside Church con- 
siderations, because they are so obvious that they need no 
statement. But, politically, for yourself — and that is, I believe, 
the same thing as for our country — this seems to me a para- 
mount necessity : your charge is what Pitt's was — it is to make 
England wealthy ; to diffuse that wealth specially among the 
working classes ; to enlarge and to purify our institutions. In 
doing this, if you early put yourself at the head of a Government 
and disclose your views, you may command an immense sup- 
port from all real patriots on all sides, and you will be true to 
yourself, to your earliest and to your present noble self. You are 
not a Radical, and yet you may by political exigencies, if you 
submit to be second, be led into heading a Radical party until 
its fully-developed aims assault all that you most value in our 
country, and it (the Radical party) turns upon you and rends 
you. You have never had fair play, or you would now have a 
vast ostensible following. All the opposition you would have to 
meet would be at first if you took your proper place. 

Pardon me for venturing on all this ; your loving kindness 
is answerable for it. — I am, my dear Gladstone, very affec- 
tionately yours, 

S. OXON. 

Osborne, July 28, 1865. 
My dear Bishop of Oxford, — The oracular sentence has 
little bearing on present affairs or prospects, and may stand in 
its proper darkness. But the hortatory part of your letter, 
coming, as it does, from you, with such sincerity, such authority, 
and such affection, I must not pass unnoticed. I think if you had 
the same means of estimating my position, jointly with my 



'unmuzzled' 171 

faculties, as I have, you would be of a different opinion. It is 

my fixed determination never to take any step whatever to raise 

myself to a higher level in official life ; and this, not on grounds 

of Christian self-denial, which would hardly apply, but on the 

double ground, first, of my total ignorance of my capacity, 

bodily or mental, to hold such a higher level ; and, secondly — 

perhaps I might say especially — because I am certain that the 

fact of my seeking it would seal my doom in taking it. This is 

a reason of a very practical kind : every day brings me fresh 

evidence of its force and soundness. — Ever affectionately 

yours, 

W. E. Gladstone. 

Dr. Pusey wrote thus to a triumphant Tory : 

You are naturallyrejoicingoverthe rejection of Mr. Gladstone, 
which I mourn. Some of those who concurred in that election, 
or who stood aloof, will, I fear, mourn hereafter with a double 
sorrow because they were the cause of that rejection. I, of 
course, speak only for myself, with whatever degree of antici- 
pation may be the privilege of years. Yet, on the very ground 
that I may very probably not live to see the issue of the 
momentous future now hanging over the Church, let me, 
through you, express to those friends from whom I have been 
separated, who love the Church in itself, and not the accident 
of Establishment, my conviction that we should do ill to identify 
the interests of the Church with any political party ; that we 
have questions before us, compared with which that of the 
Establishment (important as it is in respect to the possession of 
our parish churches) is as nothing. The grounds alleged against 
Mr. Gladstone bore at the utmost upon the Establishment. 
The Establishment might perish, and the Church but come 
forth the purer. If the Church were corrupted, the Establish- 
ment would become a curse in proportion to its influence. As 
that conflict will thicken, Oxford, I think, will learn to regret 
her rude severance from one so loyal to the Church, to the faith, 
and to God. 

Shaking off the dust of Oxford from his feet, Mr. Glad- 



If 2 MR. GLADSTONE 

stone now turned his face towards South Lancashire. He 
appeared there, as he said, ' unmuzzled.' 

Speaking in the Free Trade Hall at Manchester, he 
said : 

After an anxious struggle of eighteen years, during which 
the unbounded devotion and indulgence of my friends have 
maintained me in the arduous position of representative of the 
University of Oxford, I have been driven from that position. . . . 
But do not let me come among you under false colours or with 
false pretences. I have loved the University of Oxford with a 
deep and passionate love, and as long as I live that attachment 
will continue. If my affection is of the smallest advantage to 
that great, that ancient, that noble institution, that advantage — 
such as it is, and it is most insignificant — Oxford will possess 
as long as I breathe. But don't mistake the issue which has 
been raised. The University has at length, after eighteen 
years of self-denial, been drawn by what I might, perhaps, call 
the overweening exercise of power, into the vortex of mere 
party politics. Well, you will readily understand why, as long 
as I had a hope that the zeal and kindness of my friends might 
keep me in my place, it was impossible for me to abandon them. 
Could they have returned me by but a majority of one, painful 
as it is to a man at my time of life, and feeling the weight of 
public cares, to be incessantly struggling for his seat, nothing 
could have induced me to quit that University to which I had 
so long ago devoted my best care and attachment. But by no 
act of mine I am free to come among you. And having been 
thus set free, I need hardly tell you that it is with joy, with 
thankfulness, and enthusiasm, that I now, at this eleventh hour, 
a candidate without an address, make my appeal to the heart 
and the mind of South Lancashire, and ask you to pronounce 
upon that appeal. As I have said, I am aware of no cause for 
the votes which have been given in considerable majority against 
me in the University of Oxford, except the fact that the strongest 
conviction that the human mind can receive, that an over- 
powering sense of the public interests, that the practical 
teachings of experience, to which from my first youth Oxford 



THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 173 

herself taught me to lay open my mind— all these have shown 
me the folly — I will say the madness — of refusing to join in 
the generous sympathies of my countrymen, by adopting what 
I must call an obstructive policy. 



Without entering into details, without unrolling the long 
record of all the great measures that have been passed — the 
emancipation of Roman Catholics ; the removal of tests from 
Dissenters ; the emancipation of the slaves ; the reformation of 
the Poor Law ; the reformation — I had almost said the de- 
struction, but it is the reformation — of the Tariff; the abolition 
of the Corn Laws ; the abolition of the Navigation Laws ; 
the conclusion of the French treaty ; the laws which have 
relieved Dissenters from stigma and almost ignominy, and 
which in doing so have not weakened, but have strength- 
ened, the Church to which I belong — all these great acts, 
accomplished with the same, I had almost said sublime, 
tranquillity of the whole country as that with which your 
own vast machinery performs its appointed task, as it were 
in perfect repose — all these things have been done. You have 
seen the acts. You have seen the fruits. It is natural to 
enquire who have been the doers. In a very humble measure, 
but yet according to the degree and capacity of the powers 
which Providence has bestowed upon me, I have been desirous 
not to obstruct but to promote and assist this beneficent and 
blessed process. And if I entered Parliament, as I did enter 
Parliament, with a warm and anxious desire to maintain the 
institutions of my country, I can truly say that there is no period 
of my life during which my conscience is so clear, and renders 
me so good an answer, as those years in which I have co- 
operated in the promotion of Liberal measures. . . , Because 
they are Liberal, they are the true measures, and indicate the 
true policy by which the country is made strong and its 
institutions preserved. 

Speaking on the evening of the same day in the Amphi- 
theatre at Liverpool, Mr. Gladstone said : 



1/4 MR - GLADSTONE 

During eighteen years I have been the representative of 
Oxford. It has been my duty in her name to deal with all those 
questions bearing upon the relations of Religion and Education 
to the State, which this critical period has brought to the sur- 
face. Long has she borne with me ; long-, in spite of active 
opposition, did she resist every effort to displace me. At last 
she has changed her mind. God grant it may be well with her ; 
but the recollection of her confidence which I had so long 
enjoyed, and of the many years I have spent in her service, 
never can depart from me ; and if now I appear before you in 
a different position, I do not appear as another man. ... If 
the future of the University is to be as glorious as her past, the 
result must be brought about by enlarging her borders, by 
opening her doors, by invigorating her powers, by endeavouring 
to rise to the heights of that vocation with which, I believe, it 
has pleased the Almighty to endow her. I see represented in 
that ancient institution the most prominent features that relate 
to the past of England. I come into South Lancashire, and 
find here around me an assemblage of different phenomena. I 
find the development of industry. I find the growth of enter- 
prise. I find the progress of social philanthropy. I find the 
prevalence of toleration. I find an ardent desire for freedom. . . . 

If there be one duty more than another incumbent upon the 
public men of England, it is to establish and maintain harmony 
between the past of our glorious history and the future which is 
still in store for her. ... I am if possible more firmly attached 
to the institutions of my country than I was when, a boy, I 
wandered among the sand-hills of Seaforth. But experience 
has brought with it its lessons. I have learned that there is 
wisdom in a policy of trust, and folly in a policy of mistrust. 
I have observed the effect which has been produced by Liberal 
legislation ; and if we are told that the feeling of the country 
is in the best and broadest sense Conservative, honesty compels 
us to admit that that result has been brought about by Liberal 
legislation. 

At this time South Lancashire returned three members. 
There were six candidates, of whom Mr. Gladstone was 



LORD PALMERSTON'S DEATH 175 

returned in the third place, with two Tories above him. He 
had thus secured his seat, but he held it by a tenure 
which was alarmingly insecure. 

The result of the General Election was favourable to the 
Government, but trouble was impending. It was only the 
restraining and controlling influence of Lord Palmerston's 
great authority that kept the discordant elements of the 
Liberal party in even the outward semblance of harmony. 
And Lord Palmerston was eighty years old, and in failing 
health. In the spring of 1865 he had a severe attack of 
gout, from which he rallied. On July 1 o, Lord Shaftesbury 
wrote : 

This is considered a calm. But it is in reality no such thing. 
It is simply the peg driven through the island of Delos ; un- 
loose the peg, and all will be adrift. Palmerston is that peg. 
Let him be drawn out by defeat, by sickness, or by retirement, 
and all will be confusion. Gladstone and the Manchester party 
will ensure that issue. 

July 11. — In fearful anxiety about Palmerston. He is — the 
Lord be praised ! — better ; but he has not recovered, nor will he 
ever recover at eighty years of age, his former strength. I 
have long thought that he will not meet another Parliament, or, 
if he does, it will only be to take his leave. He is gone to 
Tiverton : his friends declared that such a step, however 
hazardous, was necessary to sustain the public confidence. 
How ardently do I pray, day and night, that he may return in 
safety ! He is the only true Englishman left in public life. 

The old campaigner got back safe from Tiverton, but he 
had fought and won his last battle, and the end was at 
hand. Early in October he caught a chill, from over- exer- 
tion and undue exposure, and on October 1 7 it was an- 
nounced to the public that he had been ill, but was better. 
The next day he died. 



176 MR. GLADSTONE 

The fifth Duke of Newcastle, Secretary for War in the 
Coalition Government, had died in the preceding year, 
leaving his life-long friend and associate, Mr. Gladstone, 
one of the trustees of his son's estate. In this capacity, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer applied himself, with char- 
acteristic thoroughness, to the duties pertaining to the 
management of a rural property, and acquired, in the super- 
vision of the woodlands of Clumber, that practical know- 
ledge of woodcraft which has afforded him such constant 
interest and recreation. This new charge required frequent 
visits to Clumber, and it was from there that, on October 
18, he addressed the following letter to Lord Russell : 

I have received to-night by telegraph the appalling news of 
Lord Palmerston's decease. None of us, I suppose, were pre- 
pared for this event in the sense of having communicated as to 
what should follow. The Queen must take the first step, but I 
cannot feel uncertain what it will be. Your former place as 
her Minister, your powers, experience, services, and renown, 
do not leave room for doubt that you will be sent for. Your 
hands will be entirely free. You are pledged probably to no 
one, certainly not to me. But any Government now to be 
formed cannot be wholly a continuation : it must be in some 
degree a new commencement. I am sore with conflicts about the 
public expenditure, which I feel that other men would either 
have escaped or have conducted more gently and less fretfully. 
I am most willing to retire. On the other hand, I am bound 
by conviction, even more than by credit, to the principle of 
progressive reduction in our military and naval establishments, 
and in the charges for them, under the favouring circumstances 
which we appear to enjoy. This is, I think, the moment to 
say thus much on a subject-matter which greatly appertains to 
my department. On the general field of politics, having known 
your course in Cabinet for eight and a half years, I am quite 
willing to take my chance under your banner in the exact 
capacity I now fill, and I adopt the step, perhaps a little 



RUSSELL AND REFORM I77 

unusual, of saying so, because it may be convenient to you at a 
juncture when time is precious, while it can hardly, I trust, after 
what I have said above, be hurtful. 

Mr. Gladstone's expectations were well founded. On 
October 19, the Queen wrote that she could 'turn to no 
other than Lord Russell, an old and tried friend of hers, 
to undertake the arduous duties of Prime Minister, and to 
carry on the Government.' Mr. Gladstone resumed office, 
as Chancellor of the Exchequer, but not ' in the exact 
capacity ' which he had filled before ; for he now became 
for the first time Leader of the House of Commons. 

During the winter he found time to compose an elaborate 
and appreciative review of the famous, but then anonymous 
book, in which Professor Seeley attempted to survey the Life 
and Work of our Lord. In this essay, in which, to quote Dr. 
Liddon, 'genius and orthodoxy have done their best for the 
Christian honour of " Ecce Homo," ' Mr. Gladstone drew 
an analogy between the special function of the Synoptic 
Gospels in the first propagation of the faith, and what he 
conceived to be the scope and effect of Professor Seeley's 
work. 

The formation of the new Government filled timid 
men with uneasy misgivings. It was obvious that in an 
Administration presided over by a delicate old man in 
the House of Lords, the ardent and vigorous Leader of 
the House of Commons would be virtually Prime Minister. 
Had any difference of opinion arisen between Lord Russell 
and his distinguished lieutenant, the position of the eldei 
statesman would, no doubt, have been difficult. But on 
the immediate business of the Government they were abso- 
lutely of one mind. Lord Russell was from first to last a 
parliamentary reformer. The Reform Act of 1832 had been 

N 



178 MR. GLADSTONE 

the main achievement of his life; but he still had the cause 
at heart, and no long period ever passed without some 
attempt on his part to give further effect t3 his favourite 
policy of measured and moderate reform. In 1849 ne un- 
successfully tried to persuade his colleagues in the Cabinet 
that the time was ripe for a further extension of the suffrage. 
In 1852 he brought in a Reform Bill, but was turned out of 
office before it proceeded further ; in 1854 he brought in 
a second Bill, which the outbreak of the Crimean War 
compelled him to withdraw ; and in i860 he brought in and 
withdrew a third. After these repeated failures and disap- 
pointments, he gladly embraced the opportunity of complet- 
ing in old age the work to which his youth and early 
manhood had been dedicated ; and it is curious to note 
his sanguine expectation that the measure which, in concert 
with Mr. Gladstone, he now prepared, might settle the 
question of parliamentary reform 'for a considerable time — 
say, to the end of the century or longer.' The subjoined 
extract from Sir Stafford Northcote's diary belongs to this 
period. It is difficult to read it without a suspicion that 
the astute Mr. Disraeli was practising on the simplicity of 
the most candid politician in his party : 

February 3, 1866. — Long talk with Dis. this afternoon. He 
says he communicated with Lord D(erby) after the election, 
putting before him the scattering of our friends and the necessity 
of reconstruction ; that he told him he thought reconstruction 
could not be carried through without a change of leader in one 
or the other House, and that he was himself willing to give up 
the lead in the Commons in order to facilitate it ; that Lord D. 
rejected that idea, and did not seem to appreciate the alterna- 
tive ; that they had had various communications by letter and 
by word of mouth ; and that they had discussed the question 
of possible arrangements with the Duke of Cleveland, Lord 



THE REFORM RILL, 1 866 I yg 

Clarendon, the Duke of Somerset, and others. Lord D. con- 
sidered that if Dis. gave up the lead of the Commons, there was 
nobody for it but W. E. G., ' who is quite prepared to take the 
high Conservative line ' : ' but we should never get on together — 
he would always be quarrelling with me, and I should be think- 
ing he wanted to trip me up.' 

The new Parliament was opened on February 6, 1866, 
the Queen appearing at the ceremony for the first time 
since her widowhood. In the Speech from the Throne, 
it was announced that the attention of Parliament 
would be directed to ' such improvements in the laws 
which regulate the right of voting in the election of 
members of the House of Commons as may tend to 
strengthen our free institutions, and conduce to the public 
welfare.' 

Mr. Gladstone's first appearance as Leader of the House 
of Commons was awaited with curiosity, hopeful or anxi- 
ous according to the prepossessions of the onlooker. His 
friends were anxious lest his passionate earnestness, his 
intense volition, his insensibility to moral perspective and 
proportion, should lead him into fanatical and dangerous 
excesses. His enemies hoped and believed that he would 
make himself ridiculous and ruin his cause. Dispassionate 
outsiders were simply amused by the perplexity of moderate 
and timid Liberals, who, just returned to Parliament as 
supporters of Lord Palmerston's easy-going rule, suddenly 
found themselves chained to the chariot-wheels of his 
incalculable successor. On March 12 Bishop Wilberforce, 
always observant and discriminating, writes : ' Gladstone 
has risen entirely to his position, and done all his most 
sanguine friends hoped for as leader. . . . There is a 
general feeling of the insecurity of the Ministry, and the 

N 2 



180 MR. GLADSTONE 

Reform Bill to be launched to-night is thought a bad 
rock.' 

The following quotation from Mr. Forster's diary per- 
tains to this period : ' I went with Gibson to Gladstone at 
ten, and talked hard with him till about twelve. He was 
very free and cordial, and let me talk as much as anyone ; 
but he does as much as Johnny does little. I went over 
the reform question with him, up and down, and I think 
he really took in what I said.' Lord Houghton writes : 
'I sat by Gladstone at the Delameres'. He was very 
much excited, not only about politics, but cattle-plague, 
china, and everything else. It is indeed a contrast to 
Palmerston's Ha ! ha ! and laissez-faire? 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced the Reform 
Bill in a speech marked by all his singular skill in exposi- 
tion, and rising in its peroration to a high pitch of eloquence. 
The provisions of the Bill were briefly these : 

It was first proposed to create an occupation-franchise in 
counties, including houses at 14/. rental, and reaching up to 
50/., the present occupation-franchise. It was calculated that 
this would add 171,000 persons to the electoral list. Next it 
was proposed to introduce into counties the provision which 
copyholders and leaseholders within parliamentary boroughs 
now possessed for the purpose of count}' votes. The third pro- 
position was a savings-bank franchise, which would operate in 
counties and towns, but which would have a more important 
operation in the former. All adult males who had deposited 
50/. in a savings-bank for two years would be entitled to be 
registered for the place in which they resided. This privilege 
would add from 10,000 to 15,000 electors to the constituencies 
of England and Wales. In towns it was proposed to place 
compound householders on the same footing as ratepayers. It 
was intended to abolish the ratepaying clauses of the Reform 
Act which would admit about 25,000 voters a 1- ove the line of 



THE CAVE OF ADULLAM l8l 

io/. It was also proposed to introduce a lodger-franchise, both 
for those persons holding part of a house with separate and 
independent access, and for those who held part of a house as 
inmates of the family of another person. Then there was the 
io/. clear annual value of apartments, without reference to 
furniture. It was further proposed to abolish the necessity, in 
the case of registered voters, for residence at the time of voting. 
Lastly, following the precedent of the Government of Lord Derby, 
they would introduce a clause disabling from voting persons 
who were employed in the Government yards. The total number 
of new voters, of all classes, would be 400,000. 

The Bill was not well received. The Conservative 
party was united and eager against it ; the Liberals were 
divided. They had not been elected to support a Reform- 
Bill, and they were angry at a proposal which, apart from 
its intrinsic purpose, would, if carried, involve another 
General Election at an early date. Those who supported 
the Bill were not more than lukewarm, and a compact and 
powerful section of Liberals organized themselves against 
the Government. Mr. Bright gave these gentry a nick- 
name which has passed into the permanent language of 
politics when he said that their leader had retired into his 
political cave of Adullam, to which he invited everyone who 
was in distress and everyone who was discontented. 

But, in spite of sarcasm and eloquence, the blandish- 
ments of Whips, and the pressure of constituencies, the 
Cave gained fresh recruits, and the opposition to the 
Government became more bitter and intense. It found 
utterance in a series of speeches on the perils of democracy, 
by Mr. Robert Lowe, which, in polished beauty of diction, 
force of argument, and aptness of illustrative quotation, are 
entitled to rank with the most famous orations ever de- 
livered in Parliament, 



1 82 MR. GLADSTONE 

In the early morning of April 28 Mr. Gladstone rose in 
a crowded and excited House to wind up the debate on the 
second reading. When a man has spoken so much and so 
well, it is a hazardous attempt to single out the best of his 
speeches. But this may safely be said — that, if Mr. Glad- 
stone ever spoke as well as on this occasion, he never spoke 
better. Mr. Disraeli had been foolish enough to remind 
his rival of that speech in the Oxford Union against the 
Reform Bill of 1832, of which mention has been made in 
an earlier chapter. Mr. Gladstone now retorted on him 
with crushing effect : 

The right hon. gentleman, secure, I suppose, in the recollec- 
tion of his own consistency, has taunted me with the political 
errors of my boyhood. When he addressed the hon. member 
for Westminster, he showed his magnanimity by declaring that 
he would not take the philosopher to task for what he wrote 
twenty-five years ago ; but when he caught one who, thirty-six 
years ago, just emerged from boyhood, and still an undergraduate 
at Oxford, had expressed an opinion, adverse to the Reform Bill 
of 1832, of which he had so long and bitterly repented, then 
the right hon. gentleman could not resist the temptation that 
offered itself to his appetite for effect. He, a parliamentary 
champion of twenty years' standing, and the leader, as he informs 
us to-night, of the Tory party, is so ignorant of the House of 
Commons, or so simple in the structure of his mind, that he posi- 
tively thought he would obtain a parliamentary advantage by ex- 
hibiting me as an opponent of the Reform Bill of 1832. As the 
right hon. gentleman has exhibited me, let rne exhibit myself. 
What he has stated is true. I deeply regret it ; but I was bred 
under the shadow of the great name of Canning : every influence 
connected with that name governed the politics of my childhood 
and of my youth ; with Canning I rejoiced in the removal of re- 
ligious disabilities, and in the character which he gave to our 
policy abroad ; with Canning I rejoiced in the opening which he 
made towards the establishment of free commercial interchanges 



THE 'BANNER' SPEECH 1 83 

between nations ; with Canning, and under the shadow of that 
great name, and under the shadow of that yet more venerable 
name of Burke, I grant, my youthful mind and imagination 
were impressed with the same idle and futile fears which still 
bewilder and distract the mature mind of the right hon. 
gentleman. I had conceived that fear and alarm of the first 
Reform Bill in the days of my undergraduate career at Oxford, 
which the right hon. gentleman now feels ; and the only differ- 
ence between us is this — I thank him for bringing it out — that, 
having those views, I moved the Oxford Union Debating Society 
to express them clearly, plainly, forcibly, in downright English, 
while the right hon. gentleman does not dare to tell the nation 
what it is that he really thinks, and is content to skulk under the 
shelter of the meaningless amendment which is proposed by the 
noble lord. And now, sir, I quit the right hon. gentleman. I leave 
him to his reflections, and I envy him not one particle of the 
polemical advantage which he has gained by his discreet reference 
to the proceedings of the Oxford Union Debating Society in the 
year of grace 1831. 

My position, sir, in regard to the Liberal party is in all points 
the opposite of Earl Russell's. . . . I have none of the claims he 
possesses. I came among you an outcast from those with whom 
I associated, driven from them, I admit, by no arbitrary act, but 
by the slow and resistless forces of conviction. I came among 
you, to make use of the legal phraseology, in forma pauperis. 
I had nothing to offer you but faithful and honourable service. 
You received me, as Dido received the shipwrecked ^Eneas — 

Ejectum littore, egentein 
Excepi, 

and I only trust you may not hereafter at any time have to com- 
plete the sentence in regard to me — 

Et regni demens in parte locavi. 

You received me with kindness, indulgence, generosity, and I 
may even say with some measure of confidence. And the relation 
between us has assumed such a form that you can never be my 
debtors, but that I must for ever be in your debt. 



1 84 MR. GLADSTONE 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer thus concluded his 
impassioned speech : 

Sir, we are assailed ; this Bill is in a state of crisis and of 
peril, and the Government along with it. We stand or fall with 
it, as has been declared by my noble friend Lord Russell. We 
stand with it now ; we may fall with it a short time hence. If 
we do so fall, we, or others in our places, shall rise with it here- 
after. I shall not attempt to measure with precision the forces 
that are to be arrayed against us in the coming issue. Perhaps 
the great division of to-night is not the last that must take place 
in the struggle. At some point of the contest you may possibly 
succeed. You may drive us from our seats. You may bury the 
Bill that we have introduced, but we will write upon its grave- 
stone for an epitaph this line, with certain confidence in its 

fulfilment— 

Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor. 

You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side. The 
great social forces which move onwards in their might and 
majesty, and which the tumult of our debates does not for a 
moment impede or disturb — those great social forces are against 
you : they are marshalled on our side ; and the banner which 
we now carry in this fight, though perhaps at some moment it 
may droop over our sinking heads, yet it soon again will float in 
the eye of Heaven, and it will be borne by the firm hands ot 
the united people of the three kingdoms, perhaps not to an easy, 
but to a certain, and to a not far distant, victory. 

An extraordinary instance of Mr. Gladstone's power of 
dismissing even the most absorbing cares the moment that 
active business is over, is related in connexion with this 
debate. In the course of his speech he had referred to 
certain opponents of reform as ' depraved and crooked 
little men.' A friend who recognized the allusion to the 
517th line of the 'Acharnians,' asked him in the lobby, while 
the momentous division was proceeding, whether he thought 
'crooked' an apt translation Qf 7rcipai>£i:oiJnira — a word 



A PARLIAMENTARY WATERLOO 185 

that describes imperfect coin on which the die has fallen 
askew. The next morning the critic received a letter from 
Mr. Gladstone, written after the division and before he went 
to bed, explaining that ' misbegotten ' would have been in 
his view nearer the meaning, but that, for purposes of debate, 
1 crooked ' was a better, because a less offensive, word. 

The division was taken amid breathless excitement, and 
its result was announced in a tumult of reactionary delight. 
The second reading was carried, but only by a majority of 
five. The authority of the Government was rudely shaken, 
and resignation was rumoured. On June 6 Bishop Wilber- 
force wrote : ' Gladstone is, I believe, determined if possible 
to force through the Reform Bill. Many of his colleagues 
would defer it.' But Lord Russell and Mr. Gladstone 
agreed to some conciliatory concessions, and went on with 
the Bill. The concessions, however, proved useless, and 
difficulties increased. On June 18 Lord Dunkellin carried 
a motion against the Government, substituting rating for 
rental as the basis of the franchise in boroughs. It was the 
anniversary of Waterloo, and the coincidence was thus hap- 
pily commemorated by Mr., afterwards Sir George,Trevelyan, 
who had first entered Parliament at the preceding election : 

Just one-and-fifty years had gone since on the Belgian plain, 
Amidst the scorched and trampled rye, Napoleon turned his 

rein, 
And once again in panic fled a gallant host and proud, 
And once again a chief of might 'neath Fortune's malice bowed. 
So vast and serried an array, so brave and fair to view, 
Ne'er mustered yet around the flag of mingled buff and blue — 
So potent in the show of strength, in seeming zeal so bold — 
Since Grey went forth in 'Thirty-Two to storm corruption's hold. 
But in the pageant all is bright, and, till the shock we feel, 
We learn not what is burnished tin, and what is tempered steel, 



1 86 MR. GLADSTONE 

When comes the push of charging ranks, when spear and 

buckler clash, 
Then snaps the shaft of treacherous fir, then holds the trusty 

ash. 
And well the fatal truth we knew when sounds of lawless fight 
In baleful concert down the line came pealing from our right, 
Which, in the hour of sorest need, upon our centre fell, 
Where march the good old houses still that love the people 

well. 
As to and fro our battle swayed in terror, doubt, and shame, 
Like wolves among the trembling flock the Tory vanguard 

came, 
And scattered us as startled girls to tree and archway go, 
Whene'er the pattering hailstorm sweeps along the crowded 

Row. 
A moment yet with shivered blade, torn scarf, and pennon 

reft, 
Imperial Gladstone turned to bay amidst our farthest left, 
Where, shoulder tight to shoulder set, fought on in sullen 

pride 
The veterans staunch who drink the streams of Tyne, and 

Wear, and Clyde ; 
Who've borne the toil, and heat, and blows of many an hopeless 

fray; 
Who serve uncheered by rank and fame, unbought by place or 

pay. 
At length, deserted and outmatched, by fruitless efforts spent, 
From that disastrous field of strife our steps we homeward 

bent, 
Ere long to ride in triumph back, escorted near and far 
By eager millions surging on behind our hero's car ; 
While blue and yellow streamers deck each Tory convert's 

brow, 
And both the Carltons swell the shout : ' We're all Reformers 

now ! ' 

The Ministry immediately resigned. The Queen was 
very unwilling to accept their resignation. She pointed out 



A POPULAR HERO 1 8/ 

the perils of a change of Government at a moment when war 
between Prussia and Austria seemed imminent ; and the 
apathy of the south of England about reform, which Lord 
Russell had assigned as a reason against dissolution, seemed 
to her Majesty equally valid against resignation. The Min- 
isters, however, felt that they had lost the confidence of 
the House of Commons, and they persevered in their pur- 
pose. On June 26 their resignation was announced to Parlia- 
ment. It was received with great excitement out of doors. 
The apathy about reform which Lord Russell had noticed 
seemed, as far as London was concerned, to have dis- 
appeared. On June 2 7 some ten thousand people assembled 
in Trafalgar Square, and passed vehement resolutions in 
favour of reform. The reformers then marched to Carlton 
House Terrace, singing litanies and hymns in honour of 
Mr. Gladstone. He was away from home, but Mrs. Glad- 
stone and her family came out on to the balcony to acknow- 
ledge the popular tribute. Indeed, Mr. Gladstone now for 
the first time became a popular hero. At the great meet- 
ings in favour of Reform, which were held in the large towns 
of the North and the Midlands, his name was received with 
tumultuous acclamation. Everywhere he was hailed as the 
true leader of the Liberal party. 

On July 13, Lord Houghton writes to a friend on the 
Continent : ' The change of ministry has passed over very 
quietly. It was a real collapse, and inevitable by human 
skill. Gladstone showed a real fervour of conviction, which 
has won him the attachment of 300 men, and the horror 
of the rest of the House of Commons. He will be all the 
better for a year or two's opposition.' 

In November, 1866, Mr. Gladstone, accompanied by 
his family, paid a visit to Rome, and had an audience ot 



1 88 MR. GLADSTONE 

Pio Nono. In reference to this interview it became neces- 
sary, two years later, for Mr. Gladstone formally to deny 
1 that when at Rome I made arrangements with the Pope to 
destroy the Church Establishment in Ireland, with some 
other like matters, being myself a Roman Catholic at 
heart.' 



1 89 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Tory Reform Bill— Liberal mutiny— Triumphant Opposition — 
Proposes to disestablish the Irish Church— The General Election of 
1 86S— Defeated in South-west Lancashire— Returned for Greenwich 
—Liberal majority— Prime Minister— The Disestablishment of the 
Irish Church. 

In announcing his acceptance of office in the summer 
of 1 866, Lord Derby said that he reserved to himself 
entire liberty to deal with the question of parliamentary 
reform whenever suitable occasion should arise. The 
strong and enthusiastic agitation in favour of reform which 
proceeded during the recess, and was signalized by some 
of Mr. Bright's most powerful speeches, determined the 
course of the Government. Parliament met on the 5th 
of February, 1867, and the Speech from the Throne 
announced that attention would again be called to the 
representation of the people. On the nth of the same 
month, Mr. Disraeli went down to the House of Commons 
and, calmly premising that he and his colleagues had come 
to the conclusion that reform was no longer a question 
which should decide the fate of Ministries, went on to 
explain the principles on which the Government intended 
to proceed. 

It was his purpose, he said, to submit resolutions, and 
on the 25th of February he gave the details. 



I9O MR. GLADSTONE 

He proposed to reduce the occupation-franchise in boroughs to 
a 6/. rating ; in counties to 20/. ; the franchise was also to be ex- 
tended to any person having 50/. in the Funds, or 30/. in a savings- 
bank for a year. Payment of 20/. of direct taxes would also be a 
title to the franchise, as would a university degree. Votes would 
further be given to clergymen, ministers of religion generally 
members of the learned professions, and certificated school- 
masters. It was proposed to disfranchise Yarmouth, Lancaster, 
Reigate, and Totnes, and to take one member each from 
twenty-three boroughs with less than 7,000 inhabitants. The 
House would have thirty seats to dispose of, and it was proposed 
to allot fourteen of them to new boroughs in the Northern and 
Midland districts, fifteen to counties and one to the London 
University. The second division of the Tower Hamlets would 
return two members, and several new county divisions named 
would have two additional members each. The scheme would 
add 212,000 voters to the borough, and 206,500 to the county, 
constituencies. 

Mr. Gladstone pointed out the inconvenience of pro- 
ceeding by resolution ■ his view was supported by the great 
bulk of the Opposition, and the Government, with amiable 
willingness to oblige ■ everybody, undertook to introduce a 
Bill. 

Lord Shaftesbury's observations on this conjuncture 
may be read with interest : 

March 4, 1867. — It seems to me monstrous that a body of 
men who resisted Mr. Gladstone's Bill as an extreme measure, 
with such great pertinacity, should accept the power he retired 
from, and six months afterwards introduce a Bill many degrees 
nearer than his to universal suffrage, and establishing, beyond 
all contradiction, the principle they so fiercely combated, of 
giving a predominant interest to any class. 

March 9. — Here are two tigers over a carcase ; and each one 
tries to drive the other away from the tit-bits. ' What was a 
conflict last year,' says Lowe, ' is a race now.' . . . Derby told 



THE REFORM BILL, 1 867 191 

his friends that if they passed his Bill they would be in office 
for many years. Thus it is ; all alike — all equally carnivorous. 
. . . ' Voila ce que nous sommes] as the chiffonnier said over 
the dead cur. 

Even at this moment of supreme interest in the political 
world, Mr. Gladstone still kept a careful eye on the policy 
and fortunes of the Church. The Bishops, in a sudden 
fit of puritan panic, proposed to introduce a Bill into 
the House of Lords for the purpose of stopping ritualistic 
practices. On March 8, Mr. Gladstone chanced to meet 
Archbishop Longley and heard this project from his lips. 
'Prom me,' he says, 'this communication had the worst 
reception I could possibly give it, without departing from 
my great personal respect and deference to the Archbishop. 
... I think it idle to suppose a Bill such as this can pass 
the House of Commons without raising many and large 
questions. I am afraid it would throw me into a very anti- 
episcopal position.' Mr. Gladstone's energetic intervention 
frightened the Bishops ; they dropped their project with 
all convenient speed, and consented to take instead a Royal 
Commission, which should enquire into all the rubrics 
governing the celebration of Divine worship. It sat, 
examined, and reported innocuously at a later date ; and 
thus, as Bishop Wilberforce gushingly said, Mr. Gladstone 
was enabled to stay this counsel of fear which threatened 
destruction. 

The Reform Bill was introduced on March 18, 1867. 

Its principles were that in boroughs the electors should 
be all who paid rates, or twenty shillings in direct taxes ; 
the franchise would also be extended to certain classes 
qualified by education, or by the possession of a stated 
amount in the Funds, or in savings-banks. Rated house- 



i£2 MR, GLADSTONE 

holders were to have a second vote. The redistribution ol 
seats would be on the lines already specified. To guard 
against the power of mere numbers, it was proposed to 
establish a system of checks, based on residence, rating, 
and dual voting. Mr. Gladstone strongly condemned 
these securities as illusions or frauds, which would be 
abandoned whenever it suited the Ministry ; and he also 
predicted that the franchise would have to be conferred on 
lodgers. 

The introduction of the Bill led to the resignation of 
Lord Cranborne, afterwards Lord Salisbury • Lord Car- 
narvon ; and General Peel ; and those who wish to know the 
sentiments with which Lord Salisbury regarded the political 
morality of his respected predecessor in the Premiership 
are referred to his speeches on the various stages of the 
Bill, and to an article on ' The Conservative Surrender ' in 
the 'Quarterly Review ' for July, 1867. The Bill was read 
a second time without a division. In committee the fight 
waxed fast and furious, and was marked by some brisk 
encounters between the Leader of the House and Mr. 
Gladstone. At the conclusion of one of these passages of 
arms, Mr. Disraeli gravely congratulated himself on having 
such a substantial piece of furniture as the table of the 
House between him and his energetic opponent. In May, 
1867, Lord Houghton writes thus: 'I met Gladstone 
at breakfast. He seems quite awed with the diabolical 
cleverness of Dizzy, who, he says, is gradually driving 
all ideas of political honour out of the House, and 
accustoming it to the most revolting cynicism.' At the 
same time Mr. Gladstone's relations with his own party 
were not wholly harmonious, and the refusal of some fifty 
of his supporters to follow him in the tactics with which 



THE CONSERVATIVE SURRENDER 193 

he proposed to meet the Bill in committee led to his tem- 
porary and partial withdrawal from the functions of leader- 
ship. In committee the Bill underwent such extensive 
alterations at the hands of the Liberals and Radicals that, 
when it was read a third time, Lord Cranborne expressed 
his astonishment at hearing the Bill described as a Con- 
servative triumph. It was right that its real parentage should 
be established. The Bill, he said, had been modified at the 
dictation of Mr. Gladstone, who demanded, first, the lodger- 
franchise ; secondly, the abolition of distinctions between 
compounders and non-compounders ; thirdly, a provision 
to prevent traffic in votes ; fourthly, the omission of 
the taxing-franchise ; fifthly, the omission of the dual 
vote ; sixthly, the enlargement of the distribution of seats, 
which had been enlarged by fifty per cent. ; seventhly, the 
reduction of the county-franchise ; eighthly, the omission 
of voting-papers ; ninthly and tenthly, the omission of the. 
educational and savings-banks franchises. All these points 
had been conceded. If the adoption of the principles of 
Mr. Bright could be described as a triumph, then indeed 
the Conservative party, in the whole history of its previous 
annals, had won no triumph so signal as this. ' I desire 
to protest, in the most earnest language I am capable of 
using, against the political morality on which the manoeuvres 
of this year have been based. If you borrow your political 
ethics from the ethics of the political adventurer, you may 
depend upon it the whole of your representative institutions 
will crumble beneath your feet.' 

When the Bill reached the House of Lords, the 
Duke of Buccleuch, a potentate little given to epigram, 
declared that the only word in it which remained unaltered 
was the first word, 'whereas.' This was really a heightened 

o 



194 MR. GLADSTONE 

and effective way of stating the plain truth that a Tory 
Government, acting under Liberal pressure, had given 
England a democratic reform. Household-suffrage in 
towns was now the foundation on which the English 
Constitution reposed. Lord Derby admitted that it was a 
'leap in the dark.' Mr. Disraeli vaunted that he had 
'educated his party' to the point of accepting it. But 
both alike took comfort in the fact that they had ' dished 
the Whigs.' This was undeniably true, and the section of 
the Whigs who had coalesced with the Tories to defeat 
Lord Russell's very moderate measure of the previous 
year now gnashed their teeth in amazed and impotent dis- 
gust. It was amusing to witness their grimaces ; and the 
spectacle contained some profitable lessons for those who 
endeavour by a political combination to' defeat the popular 
will. 

For the moment Mr. Disraeli's triumph was complete. 
On August 1 8, 1867, Bishop Wilberforce wrote : 'No one 
even guesses at the political future. Whether a fresh election 
will strengthen the Conservatives or not seems altogether 
doubtful. The most wonderful thing is the rise of Disraeli. 
It is not the mere assertion of talent, as you hear so many 
say. It seems to me quite beside that. He has been able 
to teach the House of Commons almost to ignore Glad- 
stone, and at present lords it over him, and, I am told, 
says that he will hold him down for twenty years? . 

On August 24 Mr. Maurice wrote thus to his son : 

I am glad you have seen Gladstone, and have been able to 
judge a little of what his face indicates. It is a very expressive 
one : hard-worked as you say, and not perhaps specially happy ; 
more indicative of struggle than of victory, though not without 
promise of that. I admire him for his patient attention to de- 



'AN UNPRINCIPLED TRAINER' 195 

tails, and for the pains which he takes to secure himself from 
being absorbed in them, by entering into large and generous 
studies. He has preserved the type which I can remember that 
he bore at the University thirty-six years ago, though it has 
undergone curious developments. 

On October 23 Bishop Wilberforce writes, after meet- 
ing Lord Clarendon in a country-house : ' Clarendon 
spoke to me with the utmost bitterness of Lord Derby. 
Had studied him ever since he (Clarendon) was in the 
House of Lords. . . . He had only agreed to this (the 
Reform Bill) as he would of old have backed a horse at 
Newmarket. Hated Disraeli, but believed in him as he 
would have done in an unprincipled trainer : he wins — that 
is all. He knows the garlic given, &c. He says to those 
without, "All fair, gentlemen."' 

At Christmas, 1867, the venerable Lord Russell, who 
had now reached his seventy-sixth year, announced his 
final retirement from active politics and from the Leader- 
ship of the Liberal party in the House of Lords. In a 
touching and graceful letter, dated December 26, Mr. 
Gladstone assured the gallant old Whig of his 'warm 
attachment and regard. Every incident that moves me 
farther from your side is painful to me. ... So long as you 
have been ready to lead, I have been ready and glad to 
follow. ... I am relieved to think that the conclusion you 
seem to have reached involves no visible severance ; and I 
trust the remainder of my own political life, which I neither 
expect nor desire to be very long, may be passed in efforts 
which may have your countenance and approval.' 

On February 25, 1868, it was announced in both Houses 
of Parliament that Lord Derby, owing to failing health, 
had resigned the Premiership, and that the Queen had 

o 2 



I96 MR. GLADSTONE 

entrusted Mr. Disraeli with the task of forming an Ad- 
ministration. It was a striking climax to an extraordi- 
nary career. Everyone was interested ; most people were 
amused ; some disgusted. Lord Shaftesbury thus com- 
ments on the event : ' Disraeli Prime Minister ! He is 
a Hebrew ; this is a good thing. He is a man sprung 
from an inferior station ; another good thing in these days, 
as showing the liberality of our institutions. " But he is a 
leper," without principle, without feeling, without regard 
to anything, human or divine, beyond his own personal 
ambition. He has dragged, and he will long continue to 
drag, everything that is good, safe, venerable, and solid 
through the dust and dirt of his own objects.' 

Lord Chelmsford (whom, by the way, Mr. Disraeli 
had abruptly dismissed from the Chancellorship) observed, 
1 The old Government was the Derby ; this the Hoax.' 
The ' Pall Mall Gazette,' commenting on this event, 
wrote : 

One of the most grievous and constant puzzles of King David 
was the prosperity of the wicked and the scornful ; and the 
same tremendous moral enigma has come down to our own 
days. In this respect the earth is in its older times what it was 
in its youth. Even so recently as last week the riddle once 
more presented itself in its most impressive shape. Like the 
Psalmist, the Liberal leader may well protest that verily he has 
cleansed his heart in vain and washed his hands in innocency ; 
all day long he has been plagued by Whig lords, and chastened 
every morning by Radical manufacturers ; as blamelessly as any 
curate he has written about ' Ecce Homo,' and he has never made 
a speech, even in the smallest country town, without calling out 
with David, ' How foolish am I, and how ignorant ! ' For all 
this what does he see ? The scorner who shot out the lip and 
shook the head at him across the table of the House of Commons 
last Session has now more than heart could wish ; his eyes ^ 



THE IRISH CHURCH 197 

speaking in an Oriental manner — stand out with fatness, he 
speaketh loftily, and pride compasseth him about as with a 
chain. It is all very well to say that the candle of the wicked is 
put out in the long run ; that they are as stubble before the 
wind, and as chaff that the storm carries away. So we were told 
in other times of tribulation. This was the sort of consolation 
that used to be offered in the jaunty days of Lord Palmerston. 
People used then to soothe the earnest Liberal by the same kind 
of argument, ' Only wait,' it was said, ' until he has retired, 
and all will be well with us.' But no sooner has the storm 
carried away the wicked Whig chaff than the heavens are forth- 
with darkened by new clouds of Tory chaff. 

But the new Prime Minister, though in office, was not in 
power. He w r as nominally the leader of a House which 
contained a large majority of his political opponents. The 
settlement of the question of reform had healed the schism 
in the Liberal Party, and they now could defeat the Go- 
vernment whenever they chose to mass their forces. Early 
in the Session Mr. Gladstone brought in a Bill abolishing 
compulsory Church Rates, and this passed into law. On 
March 16, he took part in the debate on the motion of 
an Irish member, that the House resolve itself into a 
Committee to consider the state of Ireland. Towards the 
close of the debate he said that Ireland had a controversy 
with us and a long account against us. He enumerated six 
main points in which we ow r ed her a debt of justice. One 
of these was the Established Church. Religious equality, he 
said, must be conceded. Referring to his speech on Mr. 
Dillwyn's motion in 1865, he affirmed 'The opinion I 
held then and hold now — namely, that in order to the settle- 
ment of this question of the Irish Church, that Church, as 
a State Church, must cease to exist.' The change must 
come ; it was our wisdom and our duty to make ready for it. 



I98 MR. GLADSTONE 

If we be prudent men, I hope we shall endeavour, so far as 
in us lies, to make some provision for the contingencies of a 
doubtful and possibly a dangerous future. If we be chivalrous 
men, I trust we shall endeavour to wipe away the stains which 
the civilized world has for ages seen, or seemed to see, on the 
shield of England in her treatment of Ireland. If we be com- 
passionate men, I hope we shall now, once for all, listen to the 
tale of woe which comes from her, and the reality of which, if 
not its justice, is testified by the continuous migration of her 
people— that we shall endeavour to 

Raze out the written troubles from her brain, 
Pluck from her memory the rooted sorrow. 

But, above all, if we be just men, we shall go forward in the 
name of truth and right, bearing this in mind — that when the 
case is proved, and the hour is come, justice delayed is justice 
denied. 

And so at last the great secret was out. Mr. Gladstone 
had made up his mind to disestablish the Irish Church. 
Those who remember his attitude towards Maynooth, and 
his letter on the spiritual efficiency of the Irish Establish- 
ment, will know that it was no sudden resolve. His letter 
to Dr. Hannah in 1865 only meant that he did not see how 
soon the occasion might arise for giving effect to an opinion 
which had long been forming in his mind. The occasion 
was now at hand. 

On March 23, Mr. Gladstone gave notice of the folio w- 
ing resolutions : 

1. That, in the opinion of this House, it is necessary that 
the Established Church of Ireland should cease to exist as an 
establishment, due regard being had to all personal interests 
and to all individual rights of property. 2. That, subject to 
the foregoing considerations, it is expedient to prevent the 
creation of new personal interests by the exercise of any public 
patronage, and to confine the operations of the Ecclesiastical 



'RESTLESSNESS' I99 

Commissioners of Ireland to objects of immediate necessity, or 
involving individual rights, pending the final decision of Parlia- 
ment. 3. That an humble address be presented to her Majesty, 
humbly to pray that, with a view to the purposes aforesaid, her 
Majesty will be graciously pleased to place at the disposal of 
Parliament her interest in the temporalities, in archbishoprics, 
bishoprics, and other ecclesiastical dignities and benefices in 
Ireland and in the custody thereof. 

Lord Stanley, afterwards Lord Derby, gave notice, on 
behalf of the Government, of an extremely mild amendment, 
admitting the necessity for modifications in the temporalities 
of the Church of Ireland, but recommending that proposals 
tending to disestablishment and disendowment should be 
left to the decision of the new Parliament. 

On March 25, Bishop Wilberforce wrote : 'I am very 
sorry Gladstone has moved the attack on the Irish Church. 
... It is altogether a bad business, and I am afraid 
Gladstone has been drawn into it from the unconscious in- 
fluence of his restlessness at being out of office. I have no 
doubt that his hatred to the low tone of the Irish branch has 
had a great deal to do with it.' On the same day the Bishop 
thus reports Mr. Gladstone's opinion on current politics : 
1 The operations of last year had destroyed the whole power 
of Conservative resistance.' 

On March 30 Mr. Gladstone moved his resolutions, in a 
speech of which the following was the eloquent peroration : 

There are many who think that to lay hands upon the 
national Church Establishment of a country is a profane and 
unhallowed act. I respect that feeling. I sympathize with it. 
I sympathize with it while I think it my duty to overcome and 
repress it. But if it be an error, it is an error entitled to re- 
spect. There is something in the idea of a national establishment 
of religion, of a solemn appropriation of a part of the common 
wealth for conferring upon all who are ready to receive it what 



200 MR. GLADSTONE 

we know to be an inestimable benefit ; of saving that portion 
of the inheritance from private selfishness, in order to extract 
from it, if we can, pure and unmixed advantages of the highest 
order for the population at large ; there is something in this 
so attractive that it is an image that must always command the 
homage of the many. It is somewhat like the kingly ghost in 
' Hamlet,' of which one of the characters of Shakespeare says : 

We do it wrong, being so majestical, 
To offer it the show of violence ; 
For it is, as the air, invulnerable, 
And our vain blows malicious mockery. 

But, sir, this is to view a religious establishment upon one side 
only — upon what I may call the ethereal side. It has likewise a 
side of earth ; and here I cannot do better than quote some 
lines written by the present Archbishop of Dublin, at a time 
when his genius was devoted to the muses. He said, in speaking 

of mankind : 

We, who did our lineage high 
Draw from beyond the starry sky, 
Are yet upon the other side 
To earth and to its dust allied. 

And so the Church Establishment, regarded in its theory and 
in its aim, is beautiful and attractive. Yet what is it but an 
appropriation of public property, an appropriation of the fruits 
of labour and of skill to certain purposes ? And unless these 
purposes are fulfilled, that appropriation cannot be justified. 
Therefore, sir, I cannot but feel that we must set aside fears 
which thrust themselves upon the imagination, and act upon 
the sober dictates of our judgment. I think it has been shown 
that the cause for action is strong — not for precipitate action, 
not for action beyond our powers, but for such action as the 
opportunities of the times and the condition of Parliament, if 
there be a ready will, will amply and easily admit of. If I am 
asked as to my expectations of the issue of this struggle, I begin 
by frankly avowing that I, for one, would not have entered into 
it unless I believed that the final hour was about to sound — 

Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus. 



'VENlf SUMMA DIES' 201 

And I hope that the noble lord will forgive me if I say that 
before Friday last I thought that the thread of the remaining life 
of the Irish Established Church was short, but that since Friday 
last, when, at half-past four o'clock in the afternoon, the noble 
lord stood at that table, I have regarded it as being shorter still. 
The issue is not in our hands. What we had and have to do 
is to consider well and deeply before we take the first step in an 
engagement such as this ; but having entered into the contro- 
versy, there and then to acquit ourselves like men, and to use 
every effort to remove what still remains of the scandals and 
calamities in the relations which exist between England and 
Ireland, and to make our best efforts at least to fill up with 
the cement of human concord the noble fabric of the British 
Empire. 

After an animated debate, marked by much fine 
speaking on behalf of the resolutions and very little against 
them, Lord Stanley's amendment was lost by sixty-one votes. 
When it came to the discussion of the resolutions in Com- 
mittee, the first was carried by a majority of sixty-five 
against the Government. Ministerial explanations followed. 
Mr. Disraeli described, in his most pompous vein, his 
audiences of the Queen, and made an injudiciously free 
use of the Royal name. Divested of vulgar verbiage, his 
statement amounted to this — that, in spite of adverse votes, 
the Ministers intended to hold on till the autumn, and 
then to appeal to the new electorate created by the Reform 
Act of the previous year. Referring to these Ministe- 
rial statements, Lord Malmesbury wrote thus on May 6 : 
1 Gladstone made a bitter attack on the Government, say- 
ing that the above-mentioned speeches required further 
explanation as to what passed between Disraeli and the 
Queen. Disraeli said the permission her Majesty gave him 
to dissolve only applied to the Irish Church question, and, 
if other difficulties arose, of course he must again refer 



202 MR. GLADSTONE 

to her. Nothing can exceed the anger of Gladstone at 
Disraeli's elevation. He wanted to stop the supplies on Mon- 
day, the 4th, but found his party would not go with him.' 

Lord Houghton wrote thus on May 2 : ' Gladstone is 
the great triumph ; but as he owns that he has to drive a 
four-in-hand, consisting of English Liberals, English Dis- 
senters, Scotch Presbyterians, and Irish Catholics, he 
requires all his courage to look the difficulties in the face, 
and trust to surmount them.' 

As soon as the resolutions were carried, Mr. Gladstone 
brought in a Bill to prevent for a time any fresh appoint- 
ments in the Church of Ireland, and this, though carried in 
the House of Commons, was defeated in the Lords. 

This practically ended the struggles of the Session, and 
Parliament was prorogued on July 31. 

On August 20, Lord Shaftesbury wrote : 'The Govern- 
ment is a compound of timidity and recklessness. Dizzy is 
seeking everywhere for support. He is all things to all 
men, and nothing to anyone. He cannot make up his mind 
to be Evangelical, Neologian, or Ritualistic ; he is waiting 
for the highest bidder.' 

Mr. Gladstone promptly opened his electoral campaign. 
In the redistribution of seats consequent on the Reform 
Bill, South Lancashire had been divided into two electoral 
districts. Mr. Gladstone determined to contest the South- 
western division, and he addressed himself to the task with 
extraordinary vigour. He spoke in rapid succession at 
St. Helen's, Warrington, Liverpool, Newton Bridge, Wigan, 
and Ormskirk, dilating with all his fiery eloquence on the 
monstrous foolishness of a religious establishment which 
ministered only to a handful of the people. The cam- 
paign was conducted with increasing vigour throughout the 



PRIME MINISTER 203 

autumn. A single and simple issue was placed before the 
country — was ^the Irish Church to be, or not to be, dis- 
established? Parliament was dissolved on November n. 
The returns soon showed an overwhelming victory for the 
Liberal cause. Mr. Gladstone's seat in Lancashire, where 
Protestant feeling runs high, was considered insecure, and 
he had therefore been doubly nominated. In Lancashire 
he was defeated, Mr., afterwards Lord, Cross being at the 
head of the poll ; but he was returned for Greenwich by a 
substantial majority. He chose this moment to publish a 
1 Chapter of Autobiography,' which he had written in the 
previous September, and in which he traced in detail the 
history of his opinions with respect to the Irish Church. 

On November 20, Bishop Wilberforce wrote to his 
friend Dr. Trench, Archbishop of Dublin : ' The returns to 
the House of Commons leave no doubt of the answer of 
the country to Gladstone's appeal. In a few weeks he will 
be in office at the head of a majority of something like a 
hundred, elected on the distinct issue of Gladstone and the 
Irish Church.' 

On December 2, Mr. Disraeli announced that he and 
his colleagues, by a commendable innovation on existing 
practice, had resigned their offices without waiting for a 
formal vote of the new Parliament. On the following day 
Mr. Gladstone was summoned to Windsor, and was 
commanded by the Queen to form an Administration. 
He had now reached the summit of political ambition. 
All the industry and self-denial of a laborious life, all the 
anxieties and burdens and battles of five-and-thirty years' 
parliamentary struggle, were crowned by their supreme and 
adequate reward. 

On December 9, the new Ministers received the Seals, 



204 M ^. GLADSTONE 

Mr. Bright taking office for the first time, as President of the 
Board of Trade. On the ioth, the new Parliament was opened 
by Royal Commission. On the nth, Mr. and Mrs. Glad- 
stone paid a visit to Lord and Lady Salisbury at Hatfield, 
where the ubiquitous Bishop Wilberforce (whom Mr. Disraeli 
had just passed over for the sees of Canterbury and London) 
had an opportunity of observing his old and honoured 
friend in the first flush of his new dignity. Here are his 
comments : ' Gladstone, as ever, great, earnest, and honest ; 
as unlike the tricky Disraeli as possible.' 

I have very much enjoyed meeting Gladstone. He is so 
delightfully true and the same ; just as full of interest in every 
good thing of every kind, and so exactly the opposite of the 
Mystery Man. . . . When people talk of Gladstone going mad, 
they do not take into account the wonderful elasticity of his 
mind and the variety of his interests. Now, this morning (I am 
writing in the train on my way to London) after breakfast, he and 
Salisbury, and I and Cardwell, had a walk round this beautiful park, 
and he was just as much interested in the size of the oaks, their 
probable age, &c., as if no care of State ever pressed upon him. 
This is his safeguard, joined to entire rectitude of purpose and 
clearness of view. He is now writing opposite to me in the 
railway carriage on his way to Windsor Castle. 

Again : 

I enjoyed meeting Gladstone again very much. In presence 
he always impresses me, as I know he does you, with the sense 
of his perfect honesty and noble principles. I never saw him 
pleasanter, calmer, or more ready to enter freely into everything. 
. . . He remarked to me on the great power of charming and 
pleasant host-ing possessed by Salisbury. All that he did say 
on public affairs was what we could wish, barring the one subject 
of the Irish Church. I think that he will hold his own. I do 
not believe in the excitement and temper, &c, which people talk 
about. He is far more in earnest than most people, and there- 
fore they revenge themselves by saying that he loses his temper. 



THE LION AND THE FOX 205 

On December 30, the Bishop wrote thus to Dr. Trench, 
Archbishop of Dublin : 

You say that the time for offering any terms of compromise 
is not come : that it will be well to let Gladstone taste the various 
difficulties which beset the carrying-out of his measure, and 
then, when he has experienced their weight, to offer him terms. 
Now, this would be fine if you were dealing with a minority, 
guided by a master of selfish cunning and unprincipled trickery. 
Doubtless it would be the wise way to meet a mere Mystery 
Man like Disraeli, who was trading upon the principles and 
ultimate existence of an honourable minority, and had no real 
principle, but was ready to catch at any cry to gain a respite 
from defeat, and was ready, in order to avoid a difficulty he 
could not meet, to sacrifice any man, party, purpose, principle, 
or Church — it would doubtless be best to let him entangle him- 
self in his own web, and then make his sacrifice of everything 
for which he had professed to act the price of his extrication 
from his trouble. But your case is altogether different. You 
have in Gladstone a man of the highest and noblest principle, 
who has shown unmistakably that he is ready to sacrifice every 
personal aim for what he has set before himself as a high object. 
He is supported, not by a minority conscious of being a minority, 
but by a great and confident majority. The decision of the 
constituencies seems to me incapable of misapprehension or 
reversal. Has there ever yet been any measure, however op- 
posed, which the English people have been unable for its ' diffi- 
culty' to carry through, when they have determined to do so? 
Look at negro slavery, protection, parliamentary reform, and 
a hundred other questions. They have resolved to carry your 
disestablishment, and they know that they can and will carry it. 
Now, what is gained by opposing and chafing such a body ? 
You may frighten away a fox by an outcry ; but you only wake 
up the strength and fury of the lion. ... I therefore once more 
implore you to consider whether the time is not come for you 
to say, 'The nation has decided against our Establishment, and 
we bow to its decision. The question of what part of our in- 
come is to be left to us, and on what tenure and conditions it is 



206 MR. GLADSTONE 

to be held, remains confessedly open. We are ready to enter 
on it, and if what we must deem still our just rights are pro- 
vided for, and we are honourably and wisely started on our new 
career, we shall do our best to aid in the settlement of a very 
difficult matter.' ... I should have great hopes, knowing the 
nobleness of him with whom as chief you have to deal, of a 
tolerably satisfactory result following immediate action on your 
parts in this direction. 

But this sagacious and statesmanlike counsel was dis- 
regarded. The Irish Bishops ranged themselves in bitter 
but futile hostility to the change. A frantic outbreak of Pro- 
testant violence began in Ireland and spread to England. 
The bulk of the Tory party, and a large proportion (though 
by no means the whole or the best part) of the English 
clergy joined the din. Noble lords and right reverend 
prelates vied with one another in rhetorical extravagances. 
The Orangemen, as usual, distinguished themselves by 
the indecency of their language and the brutality of their 
idle threats ; and some calmer spirits, who dreaded attacks 
on property and the unsettlement of institutions, were 
seriously perturbed. Bishop Wilberforce notes this con- 
versation at Windsor Castle : ' The Queen very affable. 
" So sorry Mr. Gladstone started this about the Irish Church, 
and he is a great friend of yours."' On February 16, Par- 
liament was opened by Commission. In the Speech from the 
Throne it was announced that ' the ecclesiastical arrange- 
ments of Ireland ' would be brought under the considera- 
tion of Parliament at a very early date. On the same 
evening Bishop Wilberforce notes : ' Gladstone's first speech 
as Prime Minister. Calm, moderate, and kindly. Disraeli 
constrained sno more? 

On March i, 1869, Mr. Gladstone introduced this 
momentous Bill. His speech lasted three hours, but con- 



A FREE CHURCH 207 

tained, even his enemies being judges, scarcely a superfluous 
word. It was proposed that on January i, 187 1, the Irish 
Church should cease to exist as an establishment and should 
become a Free Church. The Irish Bishops were to lose their 
seats in Parliament. A Synod, or governing body, was to be 
elected from the clergy and laity of the Irish Church, and was 
made a corporation capable of holding property and perform- 
ing other public acts. The union between the English and 
Irish Churches was to be dissolved, the ecclesiastical courts 
abolished, and the ecclesiastical law retained only as the 
rule of the Church till altered by the governing body. All 
vested interests were to receive ample — if, indeed, it was not 
excessive — compensation. When they were disposed of, out 
of the property of the disestablished Church, there would 
remain a surplus estimated at some nine millions, and this 
was to be devoted to the relief of unavoidable calamity 
and suffering. 

I do not know in what country so great a change, so great 
a transition, has been proposed for the ministers of a religious 
communion who have enjoyed for many ages the preferred 
position of an Established Church. I can well understand that 
to many in the Irish Establishment such a change appears to 
be nothing less than ruin and destruction ; from the height on 
which they now stand the future is to them an abyss, and their 
fears recall the words used in ' King Lear,' when Edgar en- 
deavours to persuade Glo'ster that he has fallen over the cliffs 
of Dover, and says : 

Ten masts at each make not the altitude 
Which thou hast perpendicularly fallen : 
Thy life's a miracle ! 

And yet but a little while after the old man is relieved from his 
delusion, and finds he has not fallen at all. So I trust that 
when, instead of the fictitious and adventitious aid on which we 
have .too long taught the Irish Establishment to lean, it shall 



208 MR. GLADSTONE 

come to place its trust in its own resources, in its own great 
mission, in all that it can draw from the energy of its ministers 
and its members, and the high hopes and promises of the 
Gospel that it teaches, it will find that it has entered upon a new 
era of existence— an era bright with hope and potent for good. 
At any rate, I think the day has certainly come when an end is 
finally to be put to that union, not between the Church and 
religious association, but between the Establishment and the 
State, which was commenced under circumstances little auspi- 
cious, and has endured to be a source of unhappiness to Ire- 
land and of discredit and scandal to England. There is more 
to say. This measure is in every sense a great measure — great 
in its principles, great in the multitude of its dry, technical, but 
interesting details, and great as a testing measure ; for it will 
show for one and all of us of what metal .we are made. Upon us 
all it brings a great responsibility — greatest and foremost upon 
those who occupy this bench. We are especially chargeable — 
nay, deeply guilty — if we have either dishonestly, as some think, 
or even prematurely or unwisely challenged so gigantic an issue. 
I know well the punishments that follow rashness in public 
affairs, and that ought to fall upon those men, those Phaetons 
of politics, who, with hands unequal to the task, attempt to guide 
the chariot of the sun. But the responsibility, though heavy, 
does not exclusively press upon us ; it presses upon every man 
who has to take part in the discussion and decision upon this 
Bill. Every man approaches the discussion under the most 
solemn obligations to raise the level of his vision and expand 
its scope in proportion to the greatness of the matter in hand. 
The working of our constitutional government itself is upon its 
trial, for I do not believe there ever was a time when the wheels 
of legislative machinery were set in motion, under conditions of 
peace and order and constitutional regularity, to deal with a 
question greater or more profound. And more especially, sir, 
is the credit and fame of this great assembly involved. This as- 
sembly, which has inherited through many ages the accumulated 
honours of brilliant triumphs, of peaceful but courageous legisla- 
tion, is now called upon to address itself to a task which would, 
indeed, have demanded all the best energies of the very best 



A GREAT DEBATE 



!09 



among your fathers and your ancestors. I believe it will prove 
to be worthy of the task. Should it fail, even the fame of the 
House of Commons will suffer disparagement ; should it suc- 
ceed, even that fame, I venture to say, will receive no small, no 
insensible addition. I must not ask gentlemen opposite to con- 
cur in this view, emboldened as I am by the kindness they have 
shown me in listening with patience to a statement which could 
not have been other than tedious ; but I pray them to bear with 
me for a moment while, for myself and my colleagues, I say we 
are sanguine of the issue. We believe, and for my part I am 
deeply convinced, that when the final consummation shall arrive, 
and when the words are spoken that shall give the force of law to 
the work embodied in this measure — the work of peace and 
justice — those words will be echoed upon every shore where the 
name of Ireland or the name of Great Britain has been heard, 
and the answer to them will come back in the approving verdict 
of civilized mankind. 

The Bill was supported by Mr. Bright in a speech of 
infinite beauty and pathos, and his solemn peroration is 
one of the finest of his recorded utterances. Mr. Lowe 
attacked the Irish Church with characteristic bitterness ; 
and the Solicitor-General, Sir John Coleridge, justified its 
destruction in an oration so eloquent and so persuasive 
that it might almost have reconciled an Irish Bishop to 
his own extinction. Mr. Disraeli opposed the Bill in a 
speech which, as was said at the time, was like a colum- 
bine's skirt, all flimsiness and spangles ; and Mr. Gathorne 
Hardy, who really thought the proposal of the Government 
wicked, thundered against it with impressive vehemence. 
Sir Roundell Palmer, who had refused to join a Govern- 
ment which contemplated disendowment, drew refined 
distinctions, and delivered a solemn protest against the 
proposed confiscation. But none of these rhetorical 
exercises mattered much. The Irish Establishment was 

P 



210 MR. GLADSTONE 

doomed. The second reading was carried by a majority 
of 1 1 8. The Bill passed practically unaltered through 
Committee. Even the Lords were too prudent to resist 
the Government, though urged thereto by the inflam- 
matory rhetoric of Bishop Magee. Lord Salisbury, and 
some other Tories who were also High Churchmen, 
voted for the Bill, which passed the second reading ; but 
in Committee a variety of enfeebling amendments were 
carried against the Government. For a moment there 
seemed some risk of serious conflict between the two 
Houses. There were rumours that Mr. Gladstone, if beaten, 
would resign. But Mr. Bright, in a letter to Birmingham, 
gave the Lords an emphatic warning of what might happen 
if they persevered in a course of arrogant obstinacy, and, 
like prudent men and true Britons, they hastily betook 
themselves to the safe haven of compromise. The Bill, 
substantially unaltered, received the Royal Assent on 
July 26, 1869. 



211 



CHAPTER IX 

The Irish Land Act — The abolition of Purchase — The ' Alabama ' 
claims — Disaffection at Greenwich — Waning popularity — Dissolu- 
tion — Defeat— Resignation— Retirement from leadership— Theo- 
logical controversy. 

' I have not any misgivings about Gladstone personally. 
But, as leader of the party to which the folly of the Con- 
servatives and the selfish treachery of Disraeli bit by bit 
allied him, he cannot do what he would, and, with all his 
vast powers, there is a want of sharp-sighted clearness as 
to others. But God rules. I do not see how we are, after 
Disraeli's Reform Bill, long to avoid fundamental changes 
both in Church and State.' The friend who, writing on 
August 3, 1869, thus expressed his uneasy sense of im- 
pending change, soon found his expectations verified by 
results. 

Those were golden days for the Liberal party. They 
were united, enthusiastic, victorious, full of energy, con- 
fidence, and hope. Great works of necessary reform, too 
long delayed, lay before them, and they were led by a 
band of men as distinguished as had ever filled the chief 
places of the State. At their head was a statesman who, by 
his rare combination of high principle, passionate earnest- 
ness, and practical skill, was beyond any other qualified 
to inspire, to attract, and to lead. He had now carried to 

r 2 



212 MR. GLADSTONE 

a successful issue his first great act of constructive legislation 
— for the erection of the Irish Church into a voluntary 
body with self-governing powers was at least as much a 
constructive as a destructive act — and his impetuous spirit 
was already seeking fresh worlds to conquer. 

The Session of 1870 was devoted to two great measures 
which ran concurrently through Parliament. The one was 
the Irish Land Bill, the other the English Education Bill. 
In his electioneering campaign Mr. Gladstone had declared 
that Ireland was shadowed and blighted by an upas-tree, 
and that this tree had three main branches— the Esta- 
blished Church, the system of land-tenure, and the system of 
public education. One of these he hewed down in 1869 ; 
to the second he addressed himself in 1870. He intro- 
duced his Land Bill on February 15. A custom had long 
existed in Ulster which recognized a certain property or 
partnership of the tenant in the land which he cultivated. He 
could not be evicted as long as he paid his rent, and he was 
entitled to sell the goodwill of his farm for what it would 
fetch in the market. This was familiarly called l tenant- 
right.' When agrarian reformers had urged its extension 
as a method of allaying Irish discontent, Lord Palmerston 
had said that ' tenant-right was landlord's wrong,' and this 
imbecile jest had been meekly accepted as closing the 
controversy. But Mr. Gladstone now proposed to make 
this tenant-right a legal institution, and where it did not 
exist he threw upon the landlord the burden of proving 
that he had a right to evict. This reversed the existing 
condition, in which, except in Ulster, the Irish tenantry 
were tenants at will. A legal machinery was created, by 
which the circumstances of any tenant whose landlord 
sought to evict him might be investigated, and just treatment 



EDUCATION AND RELIGION 213 

ensured. In brief, the object of the Bill was to protect 
the tenant against eviction as long as he paid his rent, 
and to secure to him the value of any improvements 
which his own industry had made. Mr. Gladstone re- 
garded the Bill as pertaining ' not so much to the well-being 
as to the being of civilized society ; for the existence of 
society can hardly be such as to deserve that name until 
the conditions of peace and order, and of mutual goodwill 
and confidence, shall have been more firmly established in 
Ireland.' 

The Bill passed, with much protest indeed, but with 
no serious challenge, into law, and received the Royal 
Assent on August 1. 

Simultaneously, the Government, by the hand of 
Mr. Forster, established for the first time a national and 
compulsory system of elementary education. We need not 
stay to trace the progress of this measure, because Mr. 
Gladstone's personal relations with it were slight. But 
it is important to note that the concessions made during 
its course to the convictions of Tories and Churchmen, 
in the matter of religious education, stirred the bitter and 
abiding wrath of the political Dissenters. 

On May 26 Lord Shaftesbury, whose strong feelings 
misled him as to the views of the Nonconformists, wrote in 
his diary : ' Deputation to Gladstone about education. The 
unanimity of the Churchmen and Dissenters — that is, the 
vast majority of them — is striking and consolatory. Glad- 
stone could now settle the question by a single word. But 
he will not. He would rather, it is manifest, exclude the 
Bible altogether than have it admitted and taught without 
the intervention and agency of catechisms and formula- 
ries/ 



214 MR - GLADSTONE 

The following letter of Mr. Gladstone's is interesting and 
instructive : 

Jtme 17, 1870. — My dear Shaftesbury, — I was not at liberty 
on Wednesday to speak to you otherwise than in very general 
terms on the intentions of the Government respecting the Edu- 
cation Bill. We have now taken our stand ; and I write to say 
how ready I shall be to communicate with you freely in regard 
to the prospects and provisions of the measure. I can the 
better make this tender because the plan we have adopted is 
by no means ^ in all its main particulars^ the one most agreeable 
to my individual predilections. But I have given it a deliberate 
assent, as a measure due to the desires and convictions of the 
country, and as one rendering much honour and scope to 
religion, without giving fair ground of objection to those who 
are so fearful that the State should become entangled in theo- 
logical controversy. Energetic objection will, I have some 
fear, be taken in some quarters to our proposals ; but I believe 
they will be generally satisfactory to men of moderation. Pray 
understand that the willingness I have expressed is not meant 
to convey any request, but only to be turned to account if you 
find it useful. — Believe me, sincerely yours, 

W. E. Gladstone. 

The t energetic objection ' which Mr. Gladstone foresaw 
was duly taken, and drew him into a sharp passage of arms 
with that stern champion of political Dissent, Mr. Edward 
Miall. Mr. Gladstone told him frankly that he was too 
exacting — that he looked too much to the section of 
the community which he adorned, and too little to 
the interests of the people at large. 'We,' concluded 
Mr. Gladstone, ' are the Government of the Queen, 
and those who have assumed the high responsibility of 
administering the affairs of this Empire must endeavour 
to forget the parts in the whole, and must, in the great 
measures they introduce into the House, propose to them- 



FRANCE AND GERMANY 21 5 

selves no meaner or narrower object than the welfare of 
the Empire at large.' The answer of the Nonconformists to 
this proud vaunt — an emphatic and an unpleasant answer 
— was given at the general election of 1874, and helped 
to make 'the Government of the Queen,' a term of very 
different import. 

On June 27, 1870, Lord Clarendon died, and Lord 
Granville succeeded him as Foreign Secretary. He entered 
on his duties at the Foreign Office July 5, and was informed 
by the experienced Under-Secretary that he had never known 
so profound a lull in foreign affairs. Ten days later France 
and Germany were at war. Into the history of that memor- 
able campaign there is, happily, no need for us to enter. 
Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues were true to the sacred 
principle of non-intervention, and held firmly to their pur- 
pose of neutrality, in spite of political pressure, furious 
partisanship, and diplomatic allurements. On July 27, Mr. 
Gladstone wrote to a friend : ' It is not for me to distribute 
praise and blame ; but I think the war as a whole, and the 
state of things out of which it has grown, deserve a severer 
condemnation than any which the nineteenth century has 
exhibited since the peace of 181 5.' On September 28, 
Bishop Wilberforce wrote : ' Sat some time with Gladstone. 
Full as ever of intellect and interest on all subjects. 
France and Prussia : hoping that for the present great 
sacrifice of life over.' 

In October Mr. Gladstone published in the ' Edinburgh 
Review ' an article on ' Germany, France, and England,' in 
which he distributed blame with great impartiality between 
both belligerent Powers. The fact is interesting because he 
has since told us that this (which contains the famous phrase 



2l6 MR. GLADSTONE 

1 the streak of silver sea ') was the only article ever written 
by him which was meant, for the time, to be, in substance as 
well as in form, anonymous. Its authorship was disclosed 
by the ' Daily News ' on November 3. 

Turning for a moment from foreign to ecclesiastical 
affairs, we note that, in the summer of 1870, Dean Stanley 
invited the company of divines appointed to revise the 
English translation of the Bible to open their proceedings 
by receiving the Holy Communion in King Henry VI I. 's 
Chapel; and a Unitarian minister who was a member of the 
company was admitted to Communion with the rest. The 
incident created great searchings of heart among orthodox 
Churchmen, and Mr. Gladstone's views of it are worth 
recording. ' Talked of " Westminster Scandal " — the " right 
name." Of little import when merely Stanley's eccentricity ; 
but the Bishops' speeches, especially Bishop of Salisbury's. 
" How difficult with temper of House of Commons to main- 
tain Church, if such the internal voice ! No organic change 
will be made whilst I am in power. But that may be a 
short time." ' 

On December 16, Mr. Gladstone, yielding to pertin- 
acious pressure, announced the release of the Fenian 
prisoners, on the condition that they should not remain in 
or return to England. In his second Administration he 
tasted the fruits of this clemency. 

In the Session of 187 1 the ardour of reform was still 
unabated. Mr. Gladstone repealed the futile Ecclesias- 
tical Titles Bill which, twenty years before, Lord Russell 
had passed in a moment of Protestant panic. He abolished 
religious tests in the universities. He carried through the 
House of Commons, in spite of some rudimentary forms of 



THE ROYAL WARRANT 21? 

that obstruction which has since been developed into a fine 
art, a Bill to establish secret voting. This was thrown out 
by the Lords, but became law a year later. 

It is highly characteristic of the Premier's versatile in- 
telligence, and of his power of rapidly turning his mind from 
one theme to another, that, at the very hottest moment of 
the battle for the ballot, Bishop Wilberforce notes, on 
June 22: 'Breakfast Gladstone, who unusually bright; 
Italy, &c, &c.' 

Emboldened by their success in the matter of the ballot, 
the Lords plucked up courage to throw out a Bill to abolish 
the purchase of commissions in the army ; which formed 
part of Mr. CardwelPs general system of military reorganiza- 
tion. 

This performance of the Peers was the signal for a deci- 
sive and even startling act on the part of Mr. Gladstone. 
Having failed to attain his object by the consent of Parlia- 
ment, he dispensed with that consent, and effected his 
purpose single-handed. Purchase in the army, he found, 
existed only by royal sanction. He advised the Queen 
to issue a Royal Warrant declaring that, on and after 
November 1 following, all regulations authorizing the pur- 
chase of commissions should be cancelled. Purchase in 
the army was thus abolished by the single will of the Prime 
Minister, acting through the royal prerogative. This high- 
handed act of executive authority was received with general 
disapproval. The Tories and the Peers, of course, were 
beside themselves with baffled rage \ and even devout 
Gladstonians were dismayed. Sturdy Radicals were un- 
sparing in their condemnation ; and the venerable Lord 
Russell, though he approved of the reform, gravely de- 
nounced the conduct of a Minister who invoked the royal 



2l8 MR. GLADSTONE 

prerogative to override the will of one of the Houses of 
Parliament. 

But Mr. Gladstone's friends and admirers had a more 
agreeable subject for contemplation in his dealings with 
America. His passionate love of peace and his sense of 
its value as the greatest of human blessings were nobly 
illustrated in the transactions of this year. The United 
States had a just quarrel with us. Five privateers which, 
during the Civil War, had done a vast deal of damage 
to the navy and commerce of the Union, were built in 
English dockyards. The most famous of them was the 
Alabama. She captured seventy Northern vessels. She was 
manned by an English crew. Some of her gunners belonged 
to the Naval Reserve and received English pay. She left 
port under the British flag. What made all this infinitely 
worse was that, while the Alabama was building, the 
American Minister warned the English Government of the 
use to which she was to be put ; and the English Govern- 
ment, hide-bound in official pedantry, and paralyzed by 
infirmity of purpose, let the Alabama get out to sea and 
begin her two years' cruise of piracy and devastation. 
This deplorable incident, and others like it, gave rise to a 
diplomatic correspondence which dragged on for years. At 
first the English Government declined to admit any responsi- 
bility for the losses inflicted by the English-built cruiser. 
Then Lord Stanley, afterwards Lord Derby, more prudent 
than his Whig predecessors, began to talk of arbitration. 
Then Lord Clarendon, advancing from talk into action, agreed 
to a pettifogging convention, which the Senate of the United 
States refused to ratify. Then, warned by this failure and by 
some ominous words addressed by the American President to 
Congress, England agreed to send a Commission to Washing- 



ARBITRATION 219 

ton, to confer with an American Commission on all matters 
in dispute between the two countries. Mr. Gladstone wisely 
included in the Commission a prominent Conservative 
statesman, Sir Stafford Northcote. The Commissions of 
the two countries soon agreed to the Treaty of Washington ; 
England unreservedly expressed regret for the escape of the 
Alabama from the British port, and a board of arbitration 
was arranged. How that board sat at Geneva, and decided 
against England, we all remember. The incident is only 
recalled because, on the one hand, it did much to under- 
mine Mr. Gladstone's popularity with the bellicose portion 
of the British public ; and because, on the other, it cemented 
his hold on the confidence and regard of those who concur 
in the sentiments which he expressed in the House of 
Commons on June 16, 1880, when Mr. Henry Richard 
moved a resolution, requiring the Government to urge a 
1 simultaneous reduction of armaments ' on all the Powers 
of Europe : 

There is a third way, however, in which I think it is in the 
power of the Government to qualify itself for becoming a mis- 
sionary for those beneficial purposes which are contemplated 
by my hon. friend — that is, by showing their disposition, when 
they are themselves engaged in controversy, to adopt these 
amicable and pacific means of escape from their disputes, 
rather than to resort to war. Need I assure my hon. friend 
and my right hon. friend behind me (Mr. Baxter) that the dis- 
positions which led us to become parties to the arbitration on 
the Alabama case are still with us the same as ever ; that we 
are not discouraged ; that we are not damped in the exercise 
of these feelings by the fact that we were amerced, and severely 
amerced, by the sentence of the international tribunal ; and 
that, although we may think the sentence was harsh in its 
extent and unjust in its basis, we regard the fine imposed on 
this country as dust in the balance compared with the moral 



220 MR. GLADSTONE 

value of the example set when these two great nations of 
England and America, which are among the most fiery and the 
most jealous in the world with regard to anything that touches 
national honour, went in peace and concord before a judicial 
tribunal to dispose of these painful differences, rather than 
resort to the arbitrament of the sword. 

The remainder of the year 187 1 was signalized by some 
public appearances of Mr. Gladstone which were in various 
ways remarkable. In the autumn he was in attendance on 
the Queen at Balmoral, and thence conducted an amusing 
correspondence with that eccentric bulwark of the Protestant 
religion, Mr. G. H. Whalley, M.P., who asked with all 
due solemnity if he was a member of the Church of Rome. 
Later he received the freedom of the city of Aberdeen, and 
speaking on this occasion he referred to the newly-invented 
cry of Home Rule. He spoke of the political delusions to 
which the Irish people were periodically subject ; the lengths 
to which England had gone in meeting their complaints ; 
the removal of all their grievances except that which related 
to higher education. Any inequalities which still existed 
between England and Ireland were in favour of Ireland ; 
and as to Home Rule, if Ireland was entitled to it, Scotland 
was better entitled, and even more so Wales. ' Can any 
sensible man, can any rational man, suppose that at this 
time of day, in this condition of the world, we are going 
to disintegrate the great capital institutions of this country 
for the purpose of making ourselves ridiculous in the sight 
of all mankind, and crippling any power we possess for 
bestowing benefits, through legislation, on the country to 
which we belong ? ' 

It was now apparent that the Prime Minister's popu- 
larity was on the wane. His seat was threatened. He 



A SCENE ON BLACKHEATH 22 1 

had shown scant interest in the local affairs of Greenwich 
(which was perhaps not surprising), and his policy of re- 
trenchment had deprived the borough of a great part of 
its trade. The air was heavy with murmurs and threats, 
and with characteristic courage Mr. Gladstone resolved 
to meet the murmurers on their own ground, and boldly 
challenge the judgment of his constituents. On a cold 
afternoon at the end of October he stood bare-headed on 
Blackheath, and, facing an audience of 20,000 persons, de- 
fended the whole policy of his Administration in a speech 
as long, as methodical, as argumentative, and in parts as 
eloquent, as if he had been speaking at his ease under the 
friendly and commodious shelter of the House of Commons. 
The scene was thus described by an eye-witness. ' There 
was something deeply dramatic in the intense silence which 
fell upon the vast crowd when the renewed burst of cheering, 
with which he was greeted, had subsided. But the first word 
he spoke was the signal of a fearful tempest of din. From 
all around the skirts of the crowd rose a something between 
a groan and a howl. So fierce was it that for a little space 
it might laugh to scorn the burst of cheering that strove to 
overmaster it. The battle raged between the two sounds, 
and looking straight upon the excited crowd stood Mr. 
Gladstone, calm, resolute, patient. It was fine to note the 
manly British impulse of fair-play that gained him a hear- 
ing when the first ebullition had exhausted itself, and the 
revulsion that followed so quickly and spontaneously on 
the realization of the suggestion that it was mean to hoot a 
man down without giving him a chance to speak for him- 
self. After that Mr. Gladstone may be said to have had it 
all his own way. Of course at intervals there were repeti- 
tions of the interruptions. When he first broached the 



222 MR. GLADSTONE 

dockyard question there was long, loud, and fervent 
groaning ; when he named Ireland a cry rose of " God 
save Ireland ! " from the serried files of Hibernians that had 
rendezvoused on the left flank. But long before he had 
finished he had so enthralled his audience that impatient 
disgust was expressed at the handful who still continued 
their abortive efforts at interruption. When at length the 
two hours' oration was over, and the question was put — that 
substantially was, whether Mr. Gladstone had cleared away 
from the judgment of his constituency the fog of prejudice 
and ill-feeling that unquestionably encircled him and his 
Ministry — the affirmative reply was given in bursts of all but 
unanimous cheering, than which none more earnest ever 
greeted a political leader.' 

We see the versatility which these pages have so 
often illustrated, and the constant interest in the concerns 
of the Church which underlay all this political activity, 
when we turn from this turbulent and triumphant scene 
to an entry in Bishop Wilberforce's journal. This was the 
period when an abortive attempt was made by such Church- 
men as Archbishop Tait and Dean Stanley to abolish the 
use of the Athanasian Creed in Divine service. On 
October 25 the Bishop writes: 'Interview with W. E. G. 
Most friendly. Full talk as to Athanasian Creed. Cabinet 
not willing to stir needless difficulties. . . . Noble as ever.' 

To this same autumn belong the incidents familiarly 
known as the ' Ewelme Scandal ' and the ' Colliery Ex- 
plosion ' — two cases in which Mr. Gladstone, while ob- 
serving the letter of an Act of Parliament, violated, or 
seemed to violate, its spirit, in order to qualify highly- 
deserving gentlemen for posts to which he wished to ap- 
point them. The incidents are only worth recalling now 



CASUISTRY 223 

because they unquestionably helped to undermine Mr. 
Gladstone's authority. Both these appointments were angrily 
challenged in the House of Commons as soon as Parliament 
met in 1872. The Prime Minister defended them with 
energy and skill, and logically his defence was unassailable. 
But these were cases where a plain man — and Parliament 
is full of plain men — feels, though he cannot prove, that 
there has been a departure from ordinary straightforward- 
ness and fair dealing. Though he is powerless to demon- 
strate the wrongfulness of the act, he cherishes a kind 
of sulky grudge against the nimble-witted opponent whose 
logic and ethics he . cannot assail, but who yet seems 
to have paltered in a double sense with unmistakable 
obligations. Perhaps it is not fanciful to trace in these 
appointments, and the defence of them, the influence 
exercised by the discipline of Oxford on a mind naturally 
prone to what the vulgar call hair-splitting and the learned, 
casuistry. ' Let us distinguish, said the philosopher,' and at 
Oxford men are taught to distinguish with scrupulous care 
between propositions closely similar but not identical. 
In the House of Commons they are satisfied with the 
roughest and broadest divisions between right and wrong ; 
they see no shades of colour between black and white. 
Members, of Parliament were even brutally indifferent to 
Mr. Gladstone's distinctions between ' judicial status ' and 
'judicial experience 'as qualification for Sir Robert Collier's 
elevation. They could not be induced to appreciate the 
difference between membership of the University of Oxford 
and membership of the Convocation of Oxford in the 
matter of the Rectory of Ewelme. 

On May 4, 1872, Bishop Wilberforce, describing the 
opening of the Royal Academy, writes : ' Nothing high 



224 MR - GLADSTONE 

above, but much careful and good painting. At the dinnef 
much the same of the speaking. . . . Gladstone best, but 
never kindling into fire.' 

' September 3; Haivarden. — To early church with 
W. E. G., as lovable as ever. . . . Talk with Gladstone 
on Athanasian Creed ; for no violence ; would keep all 
possible ; suspects it as only a preliminary of attack on 
Prayer-Book.' 

In December 1872, Mr. Gladstone addressed the 
students of Liverpool College on some modern aspects of 
Free Thought in Religion, dealing in particular with the 
teaching of Strauss. Mr. H. A. Bright (author of ' A Year 
in a Lancashire Garden ') wrote thus on Christmas Eve : 

Saturday I heard Mr. Gladstone at the Liverpool College. 
It was on all accounts a most interesting meeting. Tories 
and Liberals, Churchmen and Dissenters, all were there, and 
all delighted. Some because an orthodox Churchman was 
speaking, some because the Liberal chief was before them in 
the flesh. He read from a MS. ; but this was hardly notice- 
able, his voice was so finely modulated, his action so easy and 
impressive. Butler very happily quoted when it was over — 

' The guests were spell-bound in the dusky hall.' 

In the year 1873 came the long-deferred and ineffectual 
attack upon the third branch of the upas-tree. Mr. Glad- 
stone attempted to settle the difficult question of higher 
education in Ireland, and to adjust and reconcile the dis- 
cordant demands of Romanism and Protestantism for a 
university which, in its idea and methods, should not 
conflict with the convictions of either faith. 

Mr. Gladstone's scheme was admitted to be ingenious, 
plausible, and honestly intended to promote intellectual 
culture while guarding the rights of conscience. Un- 



THE IRISH UNIVERSITY BILL 225 

happily, it satisfied no one. The Roman Catholics wanted 
more ; the English Dissenters thought they ought to have 
less. The Irish Protestants resisted the abolition of their 
old university ; the Roman Bishops denounced the new 
body which was to replace the old. Mr. Disraeli made fun 
of the Bill ; stalwart Liberals condemned it ; the Irish 
members voted against it. The following extract from 
Mr. Forster's diary describes the close of the debate on the 
second reading : 

1 March n, 1873. — Gladstone rose with the House 
dead against him and his Bill, and made a wonderful 
speech — easy, almost playful, with passages of great power 
and eloquence, but with a graceful play which enabled him 
to plant deep his daggers of satire in Horsman, Fitzmaurice, 
and Co.' 

The Bill was thrown out by three votes. Mr. Forster 
continues : 

1 March 13. — Cabinet again at twelve. Decided to re- 
sign. . . . Gladstone made us quite a touching little speech. 
He began playfully. This was the last of some 150 Cabinets 
or so, and he wished to say to his colleagues with what 

11 profound gratitude " And here he completely broke 

down and could say nothing, except that he could not 
enter on the details. . . . Tears came to my eyes, and we 
were all touched.' 

The Queen, of course, sent for Mr. Disraeli, but he 
refused to take office in a minority of the House of Commons, 
and Mr. Gladstone was compelled to resume. But he and 
his colleagues were now, in Disraelitish phrase, extinct 
volcanoes. All their authority, all their power, was gone 
It was the beginning, and something more than the begin- 
ning, of the end. 

Q 



226 MR. GLADSTONE 

The summer was marked by an event which, though 
not strictly personal to Mr. Gladstone, is highly germane to 
this memoir of his career. On July 19 his life-long friend, 
counsellor, and supporter, Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of 
Oxford and subsequently of Winchester, was killed by a 
fall from his horse near the famous woods of Wotton, 
in Surrey. Readers of these pages will know his keen 
appreciation of Mr. Gladstone's character and gifts; his 
shrewd perception of his friend's motives and impulses, 
and of the diverse influences which swayed him. His 
journals afford the best material yet available for a right 
judgment on the great career which we are considering. 
The Bishop was four years older than Mr. Gladstone. 
They had become acquainted with one another in very early 
life. Acquaintance soon ripened into friendship. The 
one became a Bishop about the time that the other became 
a Cabinet Minister. This friendship was sealed by common 
interests and purposes in the sphere of religion and the 
Church ; increased in tenacity and tenderness as years went 
on, and remained inviolate to the end. It is notorious that 
had Mr. Gladstone become Prime Minister a month earlier 
than he did in 1868, Bishop Wilberforce, and not Bishop 
Tait, would have been Archbishop of Canterbury. An eye- 
witness, describing the scene at Sir Thomas Farrer's house, 
where the Bishop's body lay, says : ' Among those who came 
that Monday morning were Mr. Gladstone and Lord 
Granville, and well the writer of these lines remembers the 
scene in that room ; the peaceful body of the Bishop, the 
lines of care and trouble smoothed out of the face, the 
beautiful smile of satisfaction, and, kneeling reverentially by 
that body, Mr. Gladstone, whose sobs attested how deeply 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 227 

his feelings were moved by the sudden loss of his long-tried 
friend.' 

The end of Mr. Gladstone's first Administration was 
now nigh at hand. The Cabinet was beset from within and 
from without. Within, Mr. Gladstone had indeed one or 
two colleagues who were his personal friends, but, as a rule, 
he kept his friendships and his official relations quite dis- 
tinct. He did not realize the force of the saying that men 
who have only worked together have only half lived together ; 
and though, in official intercourse, he was facile and ac- 
cessible enough, he did not feel bound, merely because 
a man was his colleague, to cultivate relations of intimacy 
with him when business was over. A member of his first 
Cabinet remarked that he had never been invited into the 
chiefs house, except as a unit in an assembly of the Liberal 
party. Men just outside office, with their faces steadily set 
towards it, chafed at the difficulty of attaching themselves 
to the machine of Government, and, finding that assiduous 
service was of no avail, betook themselves, in some instances 
successfully, to guerilla warfare. It has been truly said that 
Mr. Gladstone understands man but not men ; and meek 
followers in the House of Commons, who had sacrificed 
money, time, toil, health, and sometimes conscience, to 
the support of the Government, turned, like the crushed 
worm, when they found that Mr. Gladstone sternly ignored 
their presence in the Lobby, or, if forced to speak to 
them, called them by inappropriate names. And, if these 
tragedies occurred in the ranks of earnest Liberalism, 
it is not difficult to guess the feelings with which sham 
Liberals and Tories regarded him. The sham Liberals had 
found the pace forced to break-neck speed during four years 
of breathless reform. The Tories had seen one after another 

Q2 



228 MR. GLADSTONE 

of their dearest monopolies and most sacred tyrannies 
knocked on the head by this terrible emancipator. His 
strenuousness of reforming purpose and strength of will 
were concealed by no lightness of touch, no give-and-take, 
no playfulness, no fun. He had little of that saving gift 
of humour which smooths the practical working of life 
as much as it adds to its enjoyment. The Liberal chief 
was gravely, terribly, incessantly in earnest ; and unbroken 
earnestness, though admirable, exhausts, and in the long 
run alienates. Out of doors, everyone was against him. 
That noble and numerous class of patriots who are brave 
with other men's lives and lavish of other men's money, 
resented his recourse to arbitration, his avoidance of war, 
his rigorous abstinence from foreign intervention. The 
clergy, by a curious perversity of fate, were arrayed in in- 
creasing numbers against the one Minister of the century 
who was pre-eminently a Christian and a Churchman. 
They found an organized contingent of strange allies in the 
brewers, distillers, and licensed victuallers, whose craft had 
been menaced, though scarcely injured, by the Liberal 
Government. 

Over and above all these elements of danger, Mr. Gladstone 
was singularly unfortunate in some of his colleagues, of whom 
it is no libel to say that they succeeded in identifying the 
name of Liberalism with all that is shabbiest in policy and 
most offensive in demeanour. They imposed vexatious 
taxes ; they haggled about the amount of water in the sailors' 
grog and the price of the window-curtains in a public office ; 
they were assailed by insurrections of half-starved children 
whose wretched bread their legislation would have destroyed ; 
they were nightly ridiculed on the stage before delighted 
audiences till they ran to the Lord Chamberlain for protec- 



DISSOLUTION 229 

tion against the scoffers. Odious to the public, they 
quarrelled among themselves. They fought for fatter 
offices, and grudged if they were not satisfied. There were 
resignations and rumours of resignation. Mr. Gladstone 
took the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, and, as some 
authorities contended, vacated his seat by doing so. Election 
after election went wrong. The chorus of the newspapers 
was unanimous against the Government. Mr. Disraeli, al- 
ways supreme in criticism, made the most of these excellent 
opportunities. He poured bitter and biting ridicule on his 
discomfited opponents, and pointed out with triumphant 
malice the signs of impending catastrophe. That catastrophe 
was not long delayed. On January 23, 1874, Mr. Gladstone, 
confined to his house by a cold, executed a coup d'etat. He 
announced the dissolution of Parliament. His decree was 
made known to the electors of Greenwich and to the world 
in an address of extraordinary length. In that address, he 
declared that his authority had now ' sunk below the point 
necessary for the due defence and prosecution of the public 
interests,' and he promised that, if it were renewed by the 
country, he would repeal the income tax. 

It is needless to describe the public excitement and con- 
fusion which attended the General Election thus unexpectedly 
decreed. Mr. Gladstone, recovering from his cold, threw 
himself into his candidature at Greenwich with incredible 
energy. Writing on February 4, Lord Shaftesbury said : ' It 
is a new thing, and a very serious thing, to see the Prime 
Minister " on the stump." Surely there is some little due to 
dignity of position. But to see him running from Green- 
wich to Blackheath, to Woolwich, to New Cross, to every 
place where a barrel can be set up, is more like Punch than 
the Premier.' Using a more flattering comparison, the ' Times, ' 



230 MR. GLADSTONE 

observed : ' The Prime Minister descends upon Greenwich 
amid a shower of gold, and must needs prove as irresistible 
as the Father of the Gods.' 

Alas ! this was too sanguine a forecast. Greenwich, 
which returned two members, placed Mr. Gladstone second 
on the poll, below a local distiller. But even in the second 
place the Liberal chief was more fortunate than most of his 
followers, who were blown out of their seats like chaff before 
the wind. When the election was over the Tories had a 
majority of forty-six. Following the example of his prede- 
cessor in 1868, Mr. Gladstone immediately resigned. 

Before the new Parliament had met for the rather 
humdrum business which lay before it, Mr. Gladstone burst 
upon the world with a new surprise. A surprise it certainly 
was, and yet he had often foreshadowed it. For many years 
past he had held, in public and in private, language which 
pointed to an early retirement from public life. He had fol- 
lowed, he said, nearly all his political contemporaries to the 
grave. He had entered public life in his twenty-third year, 
and had earned his title to retire at an age when most men 
are only beginning their career. He was ' strong against 
going on in politics to the end.' In 1861 he wrote : ' Events 
are not wholly unwelcome which remind me that my own 
public life is now in its thirtieth year, and ought not to last 
very many years longer.' In 1867 he told Lord Russell 
that he neither expected nor desired that his political life 
would be very long. On May 6, 1873, Bishop Wilberforce 
wrote : ' Gladstone much talking how little real good work 
any Premier had done after sixty : Peel ; Palmerston, his 
work all really done before ; Duke of Wellington added 
nothing to his reputation after. I told him Dr. Clark thought 
it would be physically worse for him to retire. " Dr. Clark 



RETIREMENT 23 1 

does not know how completely I should employ myself," 
&c. May 10. — Gladstone again talking of sixty as full age 
of Premier.' 

The author of these sentiments was now sixty-four. 
His life had been a continuous experience of exhausting 
labour. Even his iron constitution was beginning to show 
signs of wear and tear. His private affairs, necessarily 
neglected under the pressure of office, required his personal 
attention. There was no great question of public interest 
before the world. The country which he had served so 
zealously had expressed its desire for a breathing-time. 
He was weary and perhaps mortified, and the opportunity 
seemed to have arrived for change of occupation : idleness 
would not have been rest. Accordingly, on March 12, he 
addressed the following letter to Lord Granville : 

I have issued a circular to members of Parliament of the 
Liberal party on the occasion of the opening of parliamentary 
business. But I feel it to be necessary that, while discharging 
this duty, I should explain what a circular could not convey 
with regard to my individual position at the present time. I 
need not apologize for addressing these explanations to you. 
Independently of other reasons for so troubling you, it is enough 
to observe that you have very long represented the Liberal 
party, and have also acted on behalf of the late Government, 
from its commencement to its close, in the House of Lords. 

For a variety of reasons personal to myself, I could not con- 
template any unlimited extension of active political service ; and 
I am anxious that it should be clearly understood by those 
friends with whom I have acted in the direction of affairs, that 
at my age I must reserve my entire freedom to divest myself of 
all the responsibilities of leadership at no distant time. The 
need of rest will prevent me from giving more than occasional 
attendance in the House of Commons during the present 
Session, 

I should be desirous, shortly before the commencement of 



232 MR. GLADSTONE 

the Session of 1875, to consider whether there would be advan- 
tage in my placing my services for a time at the disposal of the 
Liberal party, or whether I should then claim exemption from 
the duties I have hitherto discharged. If, however, there should 
be reasonable ground for believing that, instead of the course 
which I have sketched, it would be preferable, in the view of 
the party generally, for me to assume at once the place of an 
independent member, I should willingly adopt the latter alterna- 
tive. But I shall retain all that desire I have hitherto felt for 
the welfare of the party, and if the gentlemen composing it 
should think fit either to choose a leader or make provision ad 
interim^ with a view to the convenience of the present year, the 
person designated would, of course, command from me any 
assistance which he might find occasion to seek, and which it 
might be in my power to render. 

The retirement of Mr. Gladstone from active leadership 
naturally filled his party with dismay. According to the 
general law of human life, they only realized their blessings 
when they had lost them. They had grumbled at their 
chief, and mutinied against him, and helped to depose him. 
But, now that this commanding genius was suddenly with- 
drawn from their councils, they found that they had nothing 
to put in its place. Their indignation waxed fast and furious, 
and was not the less keen because they had to some extent 
brought their trouble on themselves. They complained 
with an almost ludicrous pathos that Mr. Gladstone had led 
them into the wilderness ot Opposition and left them there 
to perish. They were as sheep without a shepherd, and 
the ravening wolves of Toryism seemed to have it all their 
own way. But while they were still murmuring at their 
former leader and making moan over his desertion, he 
suddenly revisited the glimpses of the parliamentary moon ; 
and it is not too much to say that, if his disappearance had 
created consternation, his reappearance created much more. 



AN UNEXPECTED RETURN 233 

Archbishop Tait had brought in a " Public Worship 
Regulation Bill,' of which the object, abruptly stated, 
was to ' put down ritualism.' Mr. Disraeli took up the 
Bill and afforded facilities for its consideration ; and Mr. 
Gladstone, suddenly returning from the country, offered 
it a most strenuous and an almost single-handed opposition. 
The grounds of his resistance may best be judged by the 
following resolutions of which he gave notice : 

1. That in proceeding to consider the provisions of the Bill 
for the Regulation of Public Worship, this House cannot do 
otherwise than take into view the lapse of more than two 
centuries since the enactment of the present Rubrics of the 
Common Prayer-Book of the Church of England ; the multitude 
of particulars embraced in the conduct of Divine service under 
their provisions ; the doubts occasionally attaching to their in- 
terpretation, and the number of points they are thought to leave 
undecided ; the diversities of local custom, which under these 
circumstances, have long prevailed ; and the unreasonableness 
of proscribing all varieties of opinion and usage among the many 
thousands of congregations of the Church distributed throughout 
the land. 

2. That this House is therefore reluctant to place in the 
hands of every single bishop, on the motion of one or of three 
persons, howsoever defined, greatly increased facilities towards 
procuring an absolute ruling of many points hitherto left open 
and reasonably allowing of diversity, and thereby towards the 
establishment of an inflexible rule of uniformity throughout the 
land, to the prejudice, in matters indifferent, of the liberty now 
practically existing. 

3. That the House willingly acknowledges the great and ex- 
emplary devotion of the clergy in general to their sacred calling, 
but is not on that account the less disposed to guard against 
the indiscretion, or thirst for power, or other faults of indi- 
viduals. 

4. That the House is therefore willing to lend its best as- 
sistance to any measure recommended by adequate authority, 



234 MR « GLADSTONE 

with a view to provide more effectual securities against any 
neglect of or departure from strict law which may give evidence 
of a design to alter, without the consent of the nation, the spirit 
or substance of the established religion. 

5. That, in the opinion of the House, it is also to be desired 
that the members of the Church, having a legitimate interest in 
her services, should receive ample protection against precipitate 
and arbitrary changes of established customs by the sole will of 
the clergyman and against the wishes locally prevalent among 
them ; and that such protection does not appear to be afforded 
by the provisions of the Bill now before the House. 

6. That the House attaches a high value to the concurrence 
of her Majesty's Government with the ecclesiastical authori- 
ties in the initiative of legislation affecting the Established 
Church. 

A shrewd observer of parliamentary life once said, 
'Whenever the House of Commons is unanimous, it is 
wrong.' The truth of this saying was illustrated in the 
debate on the Public Worship Regulation Bill. The House 
was so clearly and strongly in favour of the Bill, which has 
been a dead letter and a laughing-stock ever since it has 
been law, that it was read a second time without a division, 
and Mr. Gladstone withdrew his resolutions in deference to 
a unanimous sentiment. He reserved his force of opposi- 
tion for Committee, where the most entertaining passages of 
arms took place between him and Sir William Harcourt, 
who had been Solicitor-General during the last two months 
of his Administration. Sir William had espoused the Bill 
with extraordinary ardour, and when the House of Lords 
dealt rather cavalierly with some amendments of the 
Commons, he implored Mr. Disraeli to take up the cudgels, 
and expressed his confidence in him in these glowing 
terms : 'We have a leader of this House who is proud 
of the House of Commons, and of whom the House of 



THE PUBLIC WORSHIP REGULATION BILL 235 

Commons is proud. Well may the Prime Minister be proud 
of the House of Commons, for it was the scene of his early 
triumphs, and it is still the arena of his later and well-earned 
glory. . . . We may well leave the vindication of the reputa- 
tion of this famous assembly to one who will well know how 
to defend its credit and its dignity against the ill-advised 
railing of a rash and rancorous tongue.' 

A provision had been introduced into the Bill which 
would have overthrown the bishop's right of veto on pro- 
ceedings to be instituted in the new Court, and would have 
invested the archbishop with power to institute suits, or 
allow them to be instituted, in a diocese not his own. 
This provision Mr. Gladstone vehemently opposed, on 
the ground that it was contrary to the whole tradition 
and structure of the Church, and that it was funda- 
mentally inconsistent with the custom of Christendom as 
regards the relations between Metropolitans and their 
suffragans. In support of this view he quoted at large from 
the canonist Van Espen. Sir William Harcourt poured 
scorn on these citations ; was proud to say he had never 
heard of Van Espen ; pooh-poohed all canonists and casu- 
ists ; adopted Mr. Bright's famous phrase about ecclesiasti- 
cal rubbish ; took the broad and manly ground of common 
sense, common law, and the Constitution ; and accused 
Mr. Gladstone of having come back to wreck the Bill at the 
eleventh hour. Five days afterwards Sir William resumed 
his discourse. He had got up the case in the meantime, and 
met Mr. Gladstone on his own ground. He argued the ques- 
tion of canon law. He cited Ayliffe's ' Parergon Juris Canonici 
Anglicani,' and Burn's ' Ecclesiastical Law,' and sought to 
show that the power claimed for the Metropolitan was as 
sound canonically as constitutionally. This unexpected 



236 MR. GLADSTONE 

display of erudition gave Mr. Gladstone an opportunity, 
which he was not slow to use. 

He rebuked ' the hon. and learned gentleman ' for 
having given one of the most conspicuous and most objec- 
tionable examples he had ever known of the vicious practice 
of discussing speeches delivered in the Lords. And then, 
referring to Sir William's canonical exercitations, he said : 

I confess, fairly, I greatly admire the manner in which he 
has used his time since Friday night. On Friday night, as he 
says, he was taken by surprise. The lawyer was taken by 
surprise, and so was the professor of law in the University of 
Cambridge ; the lawyer was taken by surprise, and, in conse- 
quence, he had nothing to deliver to the House except a series 
of propositions on which I will not comment. I greatly respect 
the order and the spirit of the order of the House which renders 
it irregular, as, in my opinion, it is highly inconvenient, especially 
when there is no practical issue, to revive the details and par- 
ticulars of a former debate. Finding that he has delivered to 
the House most extraordinary propositions of law and history 
that will not bear a moment's examination, my hon. and learned 
friend has had the opportunity of spending four or five days in 
better informing himself upon the subject, and he is in a position 
to come down to this House, and for an hour and a half to dis- 
play and develope the erudition he has thus rapidly and cleverly 
acquired. Human nature could not possibly resist such a 
temptation, and my hon. and learned friend has succumbed 
to it. 

Thus ended this rather unequal duel, and the incident 
is only worth recording because it showed the distracted 
and shattered Gladstonians that their chief, though tempor- 
arily withdrawn from active service, was as vivacious and as 
energetic as ever, as formidable in debate, and as unques- 
tionably supreme in his party whenever he chose to assert 
his supremacy, 



'RITUAL AND RITUALISM 5 £37 

Mr. Gladstone was now the delight and glory of the 
Ritualists. The committee organized to defend the ritual- 
istic church of St. Alban's, Holborn, against the paternal 
attentions of the Bishop of London, made a formal and 
public acknowledgment of 'their gratitude for his noble 
and unsupported defence of the rights of the Church of 
England, as exhibited more particularly on the occasion of 
the recent debate on the Public Worship Regulation Bill.' 
Cultivated and earnest Churchmen everywhere were at- 
tracted to his standard, and turned in righteous disgust 
from the perpetrator of clumsy witticisms about ' Mass in 
masquerade.' In towns where, as at Oxford and Brighton, 
the Church is powerful, the effect of these desertions was 
unmistakably felt at the general election of 1880. 

Theological controversy has always exercised an irresis- 
tible fascination over Mr. Gladstone's mind. We have seen, 
at every stage of his career, his inclination to turn aside from 
the most exacting and exciting business of State or party 
to argue nice questions of dogmatic theology, or to discuss 
the position and prospects of the Church. The passage of 
the Public Worship Regulation Act drew Mr. Gladstone, by 
an irresistible attraction, back into these familiar fields ; and 
he uttered his views in an article on 'Ritual and Ritualism,' 
contributed to the ' Contemporary Review ' for October, 
1874. In this paper he maintained with great earnestness 
and great sobriety the lawfulness and expediency of mode- 
rate ritual in the services of the Church of England. He 
claimed for ritual apostolic authorization in St. Paul's words, 
1 Let all things be done decently and in order,' or, as 
Mr. Gladstone more exactly renders the Greek, 'in right, 
graceful or becoming figure, and by fore-ordered arrange- 
ment.' 



238 MR. GLADSTONE 

Immersed in ecclesiastical study, which was destined 
soon to develope into acrimonious controversy, Mr. Glad- 
stone resolved to shake himself free from the burdens of 
political leadership. On January 13, 1875, ne sai d, in a 
letter to Lord Granville : 

The time has, I think, arrived when I ought to revert to the 
subject of the letter which I addressed to you on March 12. 
Before determining whether I should offer to assume a charge 
which might extend over a length of time, I have reviewed, with 
all the care in my power, a number of considerations, both 
public and private, of which a portion, and these not by any 
means insignificant, were not in existence at the date of that 
letter. The result has been that I see no public advantage in 
my continuing to act as the leader of the Liberal party ; and 
that, at the age of sixty-five, and after forty-two years of a 
laborious public life, I think myself entitled to retire on the 
present opportunity. This retirement is dictated to me by my 
personal views as to the best method of spending the closing 
years of my life. I need hardly say that my conduct in Parlia- 
ment will continue to be governed by the principles on which I 
have heretofore acted ; and, whatever arrangements may be 
made for the treatment of general business, and for the advan- 
tage or convenience of the Liberal party, they will have my 
cordial support. I should, perhaps, add that I am at present, 
and mean for a short time to be, engaged on a special matter, 
which occupies me closely. 

It is amusing to see that the ' Times ' took this retire- 
ment as quite serious and final : 

' It may be assumed as certain that there will be 
occasions when his mind will revert to Westminster, and a 
sense of duty to the nation may bring him back at recurrent 
intervals to the scene of so many triumphs. Yet we cannot 
but believe that a resolution which can be traced back 
through many Sessions, and has stood twelve months' trial, 
will grow rather than diminish in strength, and that we 



A SPECIAL MATTER' 239 

must not again expect Mr. Gladstone's habitual presence in 
the House of Commons.' 

The ' special matter ' with which Mr. Gladstone was 
busied proved to be theological investigation. In July, 
1875, he replied to the various and inconsistent criticisms 
of his article on Ritualism in a second article, called ' Is the 
Church of England worth Preserving ? ' The drift of this 
paper was thus summarized by the author : 

I. The Church of this great nation is worth preserving, and 
for that end much may well be borne. II. In the existing state 
of minds and of circumstances, preserved it cannot be, if we now 
shift its balance of doctrinal expression, be it by any alteration 
of the Prayer Book (either way) in contested points, or be it by 
treating rubrical interpretations of the matters heretofore most 
sharply contested on the basis of doctrinal significance. III. 
The more we trust to moral forces, and the less to penal pro- 
ceedings (which are to a considerable extent exclusive one of the 
other), the better for the establishment, and even for the Church. 
IV. If litigation is to be continued, and to remain within the 
bounds of safety, it is highly requisite that it should be confined 
to the repression of such proceedings as really imply unfaith- 
fulness to the national religion. V. In order that judicial 
decisions on ceremonial may habitually enjoy the large mea- 
sure of authority, finality, and respect, which attaches in general 
to the sentences of our courts, it is requisite that they should 
have uniform regard to the rules and results of full historical 
investigation, and should, if possible, allow to stand over for the 
future matters insufficiently cleared, rather than decide them 
upon partial and fragmentary evidence. 

To vindicate the claims of the Church of England, and 
to enforce the policy which seemed most conducive to her 
well-being and efficiency, was the purpose of these remark- 
able papers, which were widely circulated and republished 
under the title of ' The Church of England and Ritualism.' 



240 MR. GLADSTONE 

But in dealing with his main proposition Mr. Gladstone 
had made a startling and an unfortunate digression. Ridi- 
culing the notion that a handful of ritualistic clergy could, if 
they would, Romanize the Church of England, he said : 

'At no time since the sanguinary reign of Mary has such 
a scheme been possible. But, if it had been possible in 
the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, it would still have 
become impossible in the nineteenth ; when Rome has 
substituted for the proud boast of semper eadem a policy of 
violence and change in faith ; when she has refurbished 
and paraded anew every rusty tool she was fondly thought 
to have disused ; when no one can become her convert 
without renouncing his moral and mental freedom and 
placing his civil loyalty and duty at the mercy of another ; 
and when she has equally repudiated modern thought and 
ancient history. I cannot persuade myself to feel alarm as 
to the final issue of her crusades in England, and this 
although I do not undervalue her great powers of mischief.' 

This passage created a sudden storm of honest indig- 
nation. Every Roman Catholic in the Queen's dominions 
felt aggrieved. There was a flavour of No Popery about 
the words which offended the palate of Liberal politicians. 
Contradictions and protests were heard on every side, and 
the statement that a Roman Catholic had of necessity 
placed his civil loyalty and duty at the mercy of another 
was the subject of peculiarly angry comment. 

Mr. Gladstone replied to his assailants by publishing a 
pamphlet called 'The Vatican Decrees in their Bearing 
on Civil Allegiance,' and in this he reaffirmed, amplified, 
and maintained his propositions with fulness, force, and 
precision, A hundred and twenty thousand copies of 
the pamphlet were sold in a few weeks, and the Press 



'VATICANISM 5 241 

teemed with replies. To the protests, criticisms, and 
rebukes which were lavished on him the indefatigable 
controversialist made a rejoinder in an essay called 
1 Vaticanism,' in which he summed up the controversy ; 
maintaining that although in practice Roman Catholics 
might be as loyal as their fellow-citizens, still in theory the 
modern claim of Papal infallibility was always liable to 
clash with the requirements of civil allegiance. 



242 MR. GLADSTONE 



CHAPTER X 

The Eastern Question — The Midlothian campaign — The General 
Election of 1880 — Liberal triumph — Prime Minister a second 
time — Ireland and Egypt — Defeat and resignation — The General 
Election of 1885 — Home Rule — Prime Minister a third time — 
The Home Rule Bill defeated — The General Election of 1886 — 
Resignation — Leadership of Opposition — Golden wedding— Life at 
Hawarden. 

The smoke and din of this theological battle had scarcely- 
cleared away when the great protagonist of Anglicanism 
was suddenly and imperatively summoned to a fresh cam- 
paign. An insurrection had broken out in Bulgaria, 
and the Turkish Government despatched a large force to 
repress it. This was soon done, and repression was 
followed by a hideous orgy of massacre and outrage. A 
rumour of these horrors reached England, and public 
indignation spontaneously awoke. Mr. Disraeli, with a 
strange frankness of cynical brutality, sneered at the rumour 
as ' coffee-house babble,' and made odious jokes about the 
oriental way of executing malefactors. But Christian 
England was not to be pacified with these Asiatic plea- 
santries, and the country rose in passionate indignation 
against what were known as ' the Bulgarian atrocities.' 
Lord Hartington was now the titular leader of the Liberal 
party, and his sympathies were entirely on the right side. 
But he was a man of slow-moving mind and calm, if not 



THE EASTERN QUESTION 243 

lethargic, temperament. He would probably have done 
what was right and proper in his place in Parliament : sub- 
mitted a resolution, asked for a return, or moved an 
amendment to the Address. But the national temper, and 
the feeling of the Liberal party in particular, demanded 
prompter action and more emphatic speech. The Liberals' 
extremity was Mr. Gladstone's opportunity. He rushed 
from his library at Hawarden, forgot alike ancient Greece 
and modern Rome, and flung himself into the agitation 
against Turkey with a zeal which in his prime he had never 
excelled, if, indeed, he had equalled it. He made the most 
impassioned speeches, often in the open air ; he published 
pamphlets which rushed into incredible circulations ; he 
poured letter after letter into the newspapers ; he darkened 
the sky with controversial post-cards ; and, as soon as 
Parliament met in February, 1877, he was ready with all his 
unequalled resources of eloquence, argumentation, and incon- 
venient enquiry, to drive home his great indictment against 
the Turkish Government and its champion, Mr. Disraeli, who 
had now become Lord Beaconsfield. Lord Hartington, whose 
homely mind moved more slowly and uttered itself more 
cautiously, soon found himself pushed aside from his position 
of titular leadership. Though there was a section of the 
Whigs who doggedly supported Turkey, it soon became 
evident that, both in the House and in the country, the 
fervour, the faith, the militant and victorious element in 
the Liberal party were sworn to Mr. Gladstone's standard. 
It was just two years since he had resigned the leadership 
of the party, and he was again its dominating and inspiring 
influence. 

The reason of all this passion is not difficult to discover. 
Mr. Gladstone is a humane man : the Turkish tyranny is 

r 2 



244 MR « GLADSTONE 

founded on cruelty. He is a worshipper of freedom : the 
Turk is a slaveowner. He is a lover of peace : the Turk is 
nothing if not a soldier. He is a disciple of progress : the 
Turkish empire is a synonym for retrogression. But 
above and beyond and before all else, Mr. Gladstone is a 
Christian : and in the Turk he saw the great anti- Christian 
Power standing where it ought not, in the fairest provinces 
of Christendom, and stained with the record of odious 
cruelty practised through long centuries on its defenceless 
subjects who were worshippers of Jesus Christ. 

It is unnecessary at this time of day to trace in detail 
the history of a great controversy so fresh in every memory 
that can reach back for fifteen years. For the purpose of 
this narrative it is enough to say that Mr. Gladstone's re- 
solute and splendid hostility to Lord Beaconsfield's whole 
system of foreign policy restored him to his paramount 
place among English politicians. For four years — from 
1876 to 1880 — he sustained the high and holy strife, 
with an enthusiasm, a versatility, a courage, and a resource- 
fulness, which raised the enthusiasm of his followers to the 
highest pitch, and filled his guilty and baffled antagonists 
with a rage which went near to frenzy. By frustrating 
Lord Beaconsfield's design of going to war on behalf of 
Turkey, he saved England from the indelible disgrace 
of a second and more gratuitous Crimea. But it was 
not only in Eastern Europe that his saving influence was 
felt. In Africa, and India, and wherever British arms 
were exercised and British honour was involved, he was 
the resolute and unsparing enemy of that odious system 
of bluster and swagger and might against right, on which 
Lord Beaconsfield and his colleagues bestowed the tawdry 
nickname of Imperialism. The County of Edinburgh, 



VICTORY 245 

or Mid Lothian, which he contested against the dominant 
influence of the Duke of Buccleuch, was the scene of his 
most astonishing exertions. In his own phrase, he devoted 
himself to ' counterworking the purpose of Lord Beacons- 
field.' As the General Election approached one and only 
one question was submitted to the electors — ' Do you 
approve or condemn Lord Beaconsfield's system of foreign 
policy ? ' 

The answer was given at Easter, 1880, when the Prime 
Minister and his colleagues received the most emphatic 
condemnation which had ever been bestowed on an English 
Government, and the Liberals were returned in an over- 
whelming majority over Tories and Home Rulers combined. 

One of the most accomplished and most spiritually- 
minded men of his time — Dr. Church, Dean of St. Paul s 
— wrote thus to a friend : 

You were always sanguine that the country had ' found out ' 
Lord Beaconsfield. But here in London people had not found him 
out, and wherever you went you heard people, not merely Tories 
and Jingoes, but lofty, intellectual people, who would have been 
inclined to challenge you if you had doubted their Liberalism, 
repeating the same cuckoo cry of trust in the Government, and 
dislike and distrust of Gladstone. If you have not seen it, I 
don't think you can form a notion of the intensity of that 
dislike. ... Of all the evil symptoms about, this incapacity to 
perceive Gladstone's real nobleness, and to keep in check the 
antipathies created by his popular enthusiasm and his serious 
religiousness, is one of the worst. It is a bad thing to have a 
great man before a nation, and a great minority in it should not 
be able to recognize him. I don't wonder at your remembering 
the Song of Miriam. 

Mr. Gladstone was now member for Mid Lothian, having 
retired from Greenwich at the dissolution. He was also 



246 MR. GLADSTONE 

the unquestioned chief, the idol, and the pride of the vie* 
torious army of Liberalism, But he was not the titular 
leader of the Liberal party. When Lord Beaconsfield 
resigned — which he had the grace to do without meeting 
Parliament — the Queen, in strict conformity with constitu- 
tional usage, sent for Lord Hartington as nominal leader of 
the Liberal party in the House of Commons. He could do 
nothing, and her Majesty applied to Lord Granville. The 
two statesmen went together to Windsor on April 23. They 
both assured the Queen that the victory was Mr. Gladstone's; 
that the Liberal party would be satisfied with no other 
leader ; and that he was the inevitable Prime Minister. 
They returned to London in the afternoon, and called on 
Mr. Gladstone in Harley Street. He was expecting them 
and the message which they brought, and he went down to 
Windsor without an hour's delay. That evening he kissed 
hands, and returned to London as Prime Minister for the 
second time. Truly his enemies had been made his foot- 
stool. 

The history of Mr. Gladstone's second Administration 
must be very briefly told. Before he came into office the 
Eastern Question was closed, and, chiefly through his 
influence, it had been closed in a sense compatible with 
humanity and religion. At home, his Administration did good 
and useful work, including the extension of the suffrage to the 
agricultural labourers ; but it was seriously, and at length 
fatally, embarrassed by two controversies which sprang 
up with little warning, and found the Liberal party and its 
leaders totally unprepared to deal with them. The first of 
these controversies related to Ireland. 

Here it was Mr. Gladstone's singular misfortune to 
make enemies of both sides at once. He alienated con- 



IRELAND 247 

siderable masses of English opinion by his efforts to 
reform the tenure of Irish land ; and he provoked the 
Irish people by his attempts to establish social order 
and to repress crime. At the General Election of 1880 
Irish questions were completely in the background : the 
demand for Home Rule was not taken seriously : the 
country was politically tranquil, and the distress due to the 
failure of the crops had been alleviated by the combined 
action of Englishmen irrespective of party. During the 
summer of 1880 it was found that the Irish landlords were 
evicting wholesale the tenants whom famine had im- 
poverished. A well-meant but hastily-drawn Bill to provide 
compensation for these evicted tenants passed the Commons, 
but was shipwrecked in the Lords ; and the natural conse- 
quence of its rejection was seen in the ghastly record of 
outrage and murder which stained the following winter. The 
Session of 1881 was divided between a Coercion Bill which 
only irritated while it failed to terrify, and a Land Bill 
which, in itself a magnificent performance, was yet so 
mangled by the Lords that the best part of another year was 
taken up in mending it. The Irish showed no gratitude for 
boons which they did not ask, and, demanding self-govern- 
ment, would make no terms with any English Administration 
which refused it. Political disaffection was, or seemed to 
be, associated with odious crimes. 

In the autumn of i88t the leader of the Irish party, 
Mr. Parnell, having openly defied the law, was arrested and 
imprisoned without trial, under the Coercion Act of the 
previous Session. Mr. Gladstone, speaking at the Guild- 
hall, in reply to a complimentary address, on October 13, 
announced the arrest in terms which, in view of what has 
since occurred, deserve special attention. ' Within these few 



248 MR. GLADSTONE 

moments,' he said, ' I have been informed that towards 
the vindication of law, of order, and the rights of property, 
of the freedom of the land, of the first elements ot 
political life and civilization, the first step has been taken 
in the arrest of the man, who, unhappily, from motives 
which I do not challenge, which I cannot examine, and 
with which I have nothing to do, has made himself, beyond 
all others, prominent in the attempt to destroy the authority 
of the law, and to substitute what would end in being 
nothing more or less than anarchical oppression exercised 
upon the people of Ireland. 

' My Lord Mayor, it is not with the people of Ireland 
that we are at issue. ... It is not on any point connected 
with the exercise of local government in Ireland ; it is not 
even on any point connected with what is popularly known in 
that country as Home Rule, and which may be understood in 
any one of a hundred senses, so??ie of them perfectly acceptable 
and even desirable ; others of them mischievous and revolution ■ 
ary, — it is not upon any of these points that we are at 
present at issue. ... I, for one, will hail with satisfaction 
and delight any measure of local government for Ireland, 
or for any portion of the country, provided only, that it 
conform to this one condition — that it shall not break down 
or impair the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament.' 

In the spring of 1882 the Government resolved on a 
change of tactics. They determined to release Mr. Parnell 
and some of his followers, who, like him, had been im- 
prisoned without trial. The Chief Secretary, Mr. Forster, 
dissented from the policy of his colleagues, and resigned 
office. His resignation was announced on May 2. On 
the evening of that day Mr. Gladstone said to a friend, 
'The state of Ireland is very greatly improved.' Ardent 



THE PHCENIX PARK 249 

Liberals on both sides of the Channel shared this sanguine 
faith I but they were doomed to a cruel disappointment. 
On May 6 the Queen performed the public ceremony of 
dedicating Epping Forest to the use of the people for 
ever. It was a brilliant and an animating scene. Mr. 
W. H. O'Sullivan, member of Parliament for the county of 
Limerick, was standing by the writer of this book in the 
space reserved for the House of Commons. He was 
accounted a man of extreme opinions, but he was a blithe 
and genial creature, and on this occasion he actually over- 
flowed with friendly fervour. 'This is a fine sight,' he 
exclaimed, ' but please God we shall yet see something like 
it in Ireland. We have entered at last upo?i the right path. 
You will hear ?io more of the Irish difficulty? Within an 
hour of the time at which he spoke, the newly-appointed 
Chief Secretary for Ireland — the gallant and high-minded 
Lord Frederick Cavendish — and his Under-Secretary, 
Mr. Burke, were stabbed to death in the Phoenix Park at 
Dublin, and the 'Irish difficulty' entered on the acutest 
phase which it has ever known. 

This murder — not morally more reprehensible than many 
which had preceded it, but more startling and sensa- 
tional — roused a furious indignation in England, and, 
the Coercion Act of the previous year having proved a 
dismal failure, it was succeeded by a Crimes Act of the 
utmost rigour. This Act, courageously administered by 
Lord Spencer and Sir George Trevelyan, abolished excep- 
tional crime in Ireland, but completed the breach between 
the English Government and the Irish party in Parlia- 
ment. 

Another controversy which proved disastrous to Liberal- 
ism arose from the occupation of Egypt in 1882. The 



250 MR. GLADSTONE 

bombardment of Alexandria and the subsequent expedition 
were profoundly distasteful to the great bulk of Liberals. 
Mr. Bright resigned office rather than be a party to them. 
They were but little congenial to Mr. Gladstone's own 
mind and temper ; yet a policy undertaken by his Adminis- 
tration bore the stamp of his own authority ; and the great 
majority of Liberals accepted, with reluctance, but without 
resistance, a line of action which wore an unpleasantly close 
resemblance to the antics of Lord Beaconsfield. Nothing 
but absolute confidence in Mr. Gladstone's political recti- 
tude and tried love of peace could have secured even this 
qualified and negative sanction from his party ; and, at each 
succeeding step in the dismal progress, shamefaced Liberals 
found themselves dogged by the inexorable Nemesis which 
waits on the abandonment, even for a moment, of political 
principles once deliberately and conscientiously adopted. 
The beginning of the Liberal downfall may be traced to the 
shame and annoyance which followed a too ready acceptance 
of the Egyptian policy. That shame and that annoyance 
relaxed the efforts of countless Liberals who in 1880 had 
been enthusiastic for Mr. Gladstone and his cause, but, in 
1885, felt that they could no longer support a course repug- 
nant alike to reason and to conscience. The heroic career 
and striking personality of General Gordon had fascinated 
the public imagination ; and the circumstances of his un- 
timely death awoke an outburst of indignation against those 
who were, or seemed to be, responsible for it. When the 
popularity of a Government out of doors declines, signs of 
disaffection are never wanting in the House of Commons. 
When parliamentary discipline can no longer be enforced by 
the threat, expressed or implied, of a penal dissolution, mutiny 
is imminent. The Tories, encouraged by the by-elections 



A WELCOME DEFEAT 25 1 

and reinforced by the Irish vote, were in a militant and un- 
scrupulous mood. The Liberals, ashamed of the endless self- 
contradictions of the Egyptian policy, and the aimless loss of 
life which they were asked to sanction, were more and 
more unwilling to oppose the votes of censure which the 
Tories incessantly proposed. A noble majority steadily 
declined. The Cabinet was rent by internal contentions. 
The Whiggish majority of the Ministers were in favour of 
renewing the Irish Crimes Act. A Radical minority dis- 
sented from this course, and wished to conciliate Ireland 
by establishing Provincial Self-Government. While the 
dispute was at its hottest, on June 8, 1885, the Government 
were beaten on the Budget. In reference to this event, 
Lord Shaftesbury wrote : ' Have just seen the defeat of 
Government on the Budget by Conservatives and Parnellites 
combined ; an act of folly amounting to wickedness. God 
is not in all their thoughts, nor the country either. All seek 
their own, and their own is party spirit, momentary triumph, 
political hatred, and the indulgence of low, personal, and 
unpatriotic passion.' 

It was generally believed in the House of Commons, 
and not least firmly on the Liberal side, that the Govern- 
ment courted this defeat, as a way of escape from their 
manifold perplexities. Certainly no strenuous efforts were 
made to avert it. 

Mr. Gladstone, disgusted with the course of policy into 
which he had insensibly drifted, and weary of dissensions 
among his colleagues, resigned office. The Queen offered 
him the dignity of an earldom, which, happily for his party, 
he declined. After some rather complicated negotiations, 
he was succeeded by Lord Salisbury. 

The General Election took place in the following 



252 MR. GLADSTONE 

November. In the boroughs the Liberals lost heavily. 
The clergy, the publicans, and the Parnellites were found 
arrayed in scandalous alliance against the Liberal cause. 
Tory enthusiasm took advantage of Liberal lukewarm- 
ness, and the result was disastrous to the Liberal party. 
But in the counties the good cause triumphed. The agri- 
cultural labourer proved, as a general rule, loyal to those 
who had just secured for him the rights of citizenship. That 
peculiar doctrine of agricultural politics which has become 
famous under the nickname of 'Three Acres and a Cow,' 
was beyond doubt attractive to the voter and advantageous 
to its authors. In the bulk of English counties the Irish 
voter is unknown, and the Established Church is politically 
weakest where she has relied most exclusively upon her 
traditional authority. In brief, the counties went far to 
redeem the losses in the boroughs ; but not quite far 
enough. When the election was over, the Liberal party 
was just short of the numerical strength which was re- 
quisite to defeat a combination of Tories and Parnellites. 
Lord Salisbury, therefore, retained office, but the life of his 
Administration hung by a thread. 

Though not in office, the Liberals held an extremely 
satisfactory position. They were strong in numbers, in en- 
thusiasm, and, for the time at least, in union. They had at 
their head Mr. Gladstone's unique personality and command- 
ing authority. In Mr. Chamberlain they had a champion 
of great ability and industry, and of a popularity just at its 
zenith. Their opponents were notoriously distracted by 
internecine jealousies, and dependent for their continuance 
in office on the precarious support of the Parnellites. In a 
word, the Liberals were an exceptionally strong Opposition, 
and the difficulties which lay before the Government pro- 



HOME RULE 253 

mised abundant opportunities for harassing and successful 
attack. 

Thus all might still have gone well, and very well, 
for the Liberal party, when suddenly the fates decreed a 
fresh exemplification of the mischief which arises from 
hurrying an unprepared party into a novel and perplexing 
course. 

On November 24, 1J884, Lord Shaftesbury, moved by 
the spirit of prophecy, wrote : ' In a year or so we shall 
have Home Rule disposed of (at all hazards), to save us 
from daily and hourly bores.' On December 17, 1885, 
the world was astonished by the appearance of an anony- 
mous paragraph, stating that, if Mr. Gladstone returned to 
office, he was prepared to deal in a liberal spirit with the 
demand for Home Rule. The genesis of that paragraph 
has never been clearly ascertained, but it was surrounded 
by an atmosphere of vulgar mystery, little suited to the 
importance of the new policy or the personal dignity of 
an illustrious statesman. Its appearance was the signal 
for a storm of questions, contradictions, explanations, en- 
thusiasms, and jeremiads. But amidst all the hurly-burly 
Mr. Gladstone held his peace. He would neither confirm 
nor deny. The public must wait and see. The subject was 
one which could only be handled by a responsible Ministry. 
The bewilderment and confusion of the Liberal party were 
absolute. No one knew what was coming next ; who was 
on what side ; or whither his party — or, indeed, himself — was 
tending. One point only was clear : if Mr. Gladstone 
meant what he appeared to mean, the Parnellites would 
support him, and the Tories must leave office. The Govern- 
ment seemed to accept the situation : when Parliament 
met, they executed, for form's sake, some confused manceu- 



254 MR - GLADSTONE 

vres in which Mr. W. H. Smith was a prominent figure, 
and then they were beaten on an amendment to the Address, 
in favour of municipal allotments. 

There was a moment of uncertainty, during which it 
seemed possible that the Government might try to defy 
parliamentary opinion and retain office until defeated on a 
distinct vote of non-confidence. But wiser counsels pre- 
vailed, and, late at night on January 29, 1886, Sir Henry 
Ponsonby arrived at Mr. Gladstone's house with a message 
from the Queen. On the 1st of February Mr. Gladstone 
kissed hands at Osborne, and was, for the third time, Prime 
Minister of England. 

' When Gladstone runs down a steep place, his immense 
majority, like the pigs in Scripture, but hoping for a better 
issue, will go with him, roaring in grunts of exultation.' 
This was Lord Shaftesbury's prediction in the preceding 
year ; but it was based on an assumption which proved 
erroneous. It took for granted the unalterable docility of 
the Liberal party. 

The moment that the Queen empowered Mr. Glad- 
stone to form an Administration, it became apparent that 
docility had given place to a spirit of a different kind. Of 
those who had been, in the previous June, his colleagues 
in the Cabinet, Lord Hartington, Lord Selborne, Lord 
Derby, Lord Northbrook, and Lord Carlingford declared 
themselves against what they understood to be his policy, 
and they gained formidable allies in Sir Henry James and 
Mr. Courtney. It may be questioned whether such losses 
were adequately balanced even by the high character 
and literary genius of Mr. Morley, or the forensic skill 
and learning of Lord Herschell. What followed may 
be briefly told. In April Mr. Gladstone brought ~m 



A SPLIT IN THE CAMP 255 

his Bill for the government of Ireland, and his Bill for 
buying out the Irish landlords. Meanwhile the ranks of 
the seceders were reinforced by Mr. Chamberlain, the 
enterprising and able exponent of the new Radicalism, 
and he was accompanied by Sir George Trevelyan, who com- 
bined the most dignified traditions, social and literary, of the 
Whig party with a fervent and stable Liberalism which the 
vicissitudes of twenty years had constantly tried and never 
found wanting. 

Each of these secessions had its special weight, but the 
most important resistance which the new policy encountered 
was that of Mr. Bright. His high reputation as a man 
whose politics were part of his religion, and who had never 
turned aside by a hair's-breadth from the narrow path of 
civil duty as he understood it, gave him a weight of 
moral influence such as no contemporary politician could 
command. 

It is unnecessary to multiply instances. In every 
constituency a large number of leading Liberals declared 
themselves against Mr. Gladstone's Irish Bills ; and this 
necessarily produced its effect on the minds of the Liberal 
rank-and-file. It was no sufficient compensation for these 
defections that the Liberals gained, in certain districts, the 
support of that very broken reed, the Irish vote, which 
was destined to pierce the hand of so many a confiding 
candidate who leant upon it. 

Meanwhile the two sections of the dissentient party in 
Parliament were consolidating themselves. The Whigs 
under Lord Hartington coalesced with the Radicals under 
Mr. Chamberlain, and both together made a working 
alliance with the Tories. This alliance was admirably 
organized in London and in the constituencies. Speeches 



256 MR. GLADSTONE 

of immense force were made against the Bills in all the 
chief towns. The whole Metropolitan Press, with the 
exception of one morning and one evening paper, daily and 
weekly denounced the Bills with skill and vigour. A re- 
morseless criticism in Parliament detected in both measures 
an abundance of faults which could not be denied even 
by those who believed their general principles to be sound. 
Mr. Gladstone's best friends urged him either to accept 
such modifications as should disarm his critics, or to 
withdraw his Bills and substitute for them a resolution 
affirming the principle of Irish autonomy. 

But his official counsellors and the self-styled experts of 
Liberal organization assured him that the Home Rule Bill 
would pass the second reading in the House of Commons, 
and that, even if by some mischance it were defeated by 
two or three votes, his Irish policy was popular in the 
country, and he had everything to hope from an early 
appeal to the constituencies. As the day of the momentous 
division drew near, hopes of a majority for the Bill faded 
into fears of a defeat ; but still the optimists of party 
were persuaded that the majority against the Bill would 
not amount to ten votes. The Cabinet arrived at a 
desperate resolution. If they were beaten by this small 
majority they would not resign. Some faithful adherent 
should move a vote of confidence on general grounds. 
This would be supported by many who could not vote for 
the Home Rule Bill. The settlement of the Irish question 
would be deferred to a later Session, the Liberals would 
still be in office, and all would be well. But alas for the 
vanity of human hopes and the knock-kneed calculations of 
parliamentary managers ! On the early morning of June 8 
the Bill was thrown out by thirty. Mr, Gladstone im- 



AN UNSUCCESSFUL APPEAL 257 

mediately advised the Queen to dissolve Parliament. Her 
Majesty naturally demurred to a second dissolution within 
seven months, and begged Mr. Gladstone to reconsider his 
advice. He replied that he was sure that a General Elec- 
tion would cause less inconvenience to the country than a 
year of embittered and fanatical agitation for and against 
Home Rule. Besides, ' If we did not dissolve,' he said to a 
colleague, ' we should be showing the white feather.' The 
Queen yielded, and Parliament was dissolved on June 26. 

The dissolution was a tactical blunder, but Mr. Glad- 
stone's appeal to the country was skilfully worded. He freely 
admitted that the Bills were dead. He asked the country 
simply to sanction a principle, and that a very plain and, in 
itself, a most reasonable one. He invited the constituencies 
to say Aye or No to the question, ' Whether you will, or will 
not, have regard to the prayer of Ireland for the management 
by herself of the affairs specifically and exclusively her own ? ' 

This dissociation of the bare principle of self-government 
from the practical perplexities with which the Bills had 
abounded enabled many Liberals who dissented from the 
Land Bill altogether, and from many parts of the Home 
Rule Bill, to give their support, either as voters or as 
candidates, to Mr. Gladstone in his attack upon seats held 
by Tories. But with the majority of electors the contrary 
view prevailed ; and this is not surprising. Up to December, 
1885, English politicians who were favourable to Home 
Rule, or, indeed, had seriously considered it, might be 
counted on the fingers of one hand. With denunciations 
of Mr. Parnell's aims and methods Liberals were indeed 
abundantly familiar ; but sympathy with the demand for 
Home Rule was extremely rare, and Mr. Gladstone's views 
of it were known only to a privileged few. 

s 



258 MR. GLADSTONE 

Suddenly the electorate was called to approve what it 
had hitherto been taught to condemn. Under the im- 
perious influence of genius and eloquence, men found 
themselves hurried into new and astonishing courses. The 
prepossessions, opinions, and prejudices of a lifetime cannot 
be unlearnt in a moment. It is an excellent characteristic 
of the English voter that he looks before he leaps ; and, 
if the object which he is asked to clear is very unfamiliar, 
he will look twice or thrice before the plunge is made. In 
reference to Home Rule, sufficient time was not allowed 
for this process of enquiry and familiarization. The sanction 
of the voters was asked, at a moment's notice, for a vast 
and unexpected change ; and this sanction they refused 
to give. There is no redson to believe that the refusal was 
final. A proposition inherently vicious must be condemned 
at once and for ever ; but a proposition which is objec- 
tionable chiefly because it is novel, may be held over for 
further consideration. Democracy signifies its disapproval 
in the same guarded form which formerly conveyed the 
refusal of the Royal Assent : L Etat (as formerly Le Roi) 
s'avisera. 

But meanwhile Liberal desertions were many, and 
abstentions more. When the election closed, it showed a 
majority of considerably more than a hundred against Mr. 
Gladstone's policy. The resignation of Ministers followed 
in due course, and, after a brief interval in which it had 
seemed possible, and many had sincerely hoped, that Lord 
Hartington would become Prime Minister, the Tories re- 
entered office with Lord Salisbury at their head. 

With the opening of the new Parliament Mr. Gladstone, 
now seventy-six years old, entered on an extraordinary 
ccur:e of physical and intellectual efforts, with voice and 



GOLDEN WEDDING 259 

pen, in Parliament and on the platform, on behalf of the 
cause, defeated but not abandoned, of self-government 
for Ireland. The exuberance of bodily and mental acti- 
vity, the fertility of argumentative resource, and the copi- 
ousness of rhetoric which he threw into the enterprise, 
would have been remarkable at any stage of his public 
life ; continued into his eighty-third year they are little 
less than miraculous. 

One touch of domestic interest may not unfitly close 
this narrative. On July 25, 1889, Mr. Gladstone celebrated 
the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage with the gracious 
and gentle lady who, through all vicissitudes, has been 
the guiding star of his fortunes and the good angel of his 
house. The day was ' auspicated,' as Burke says, ' with 
the old warning of the Church, Sursum cordaj for, in 
harmony with the spirit of the fifty years which it com- 
pleted, it began with attendance at the Holy Communion. 
It was gladdened by the loving presence of family and 
friends, and the innumerable benedictions of well-wishers 
at a distance. It was characteristic that even at a moment so 
heavily charged with memories and emotions, Mr. Gladstone 
found time to attend the House of Commons and deliver 
an animated speech in support of the Royal Grants. From 
the countless letters of congratulation and good wishes 
which were received on that memorable day, the following 
is taken as one of the most graceful and most touching : 

Archbishop's House, Westminster, S.W., July 23, 1S89. 

My dear Mrs. Gladstone, — The last time we met, you said, 
' I do not forget old days.' And truly I can say so too. 

Therefore, in the midst of all who will be congratulating you 
on the fiftieth anniversary of your home-life, I cannot be silent. 
I have watched you both out on the sea of public tumults from 

s 2 



260 MR. GLADSTONE 

my quiet shores. You know how nearly I have agreed in 

William's political career, especially in his Irish policy of the 

last twenty years. And I have seen also your works of charity 

for the people, in which, as you know, I heartily share with you. 

There are few who keep such a jubilee as yours : and how few 

of our old friends and companions now survive ! We have had 

a long climb up those eighty steps— for even you are not far 

behind — and I hope we shall not ' break the pitcher at the 

fountain.' I wonder at your activity and endurance of weather. 

May every blessing be with you both to the end ! — Believe me, 

always yours affectionately, 

Henry E. Card. Manning. 

In connexion with this domestic incident the following 
account of Mr. Gladstone's daily life at Hawarden may 
perhaps be read with interest. It was written by an in- 
habitant of the parish, and may be regarded as accurate. 

' Quiet living at Hawarden is Mr. Gladstone's supreme 
pleasure. Of late years peace and quiet have been some- 
what endangered by the growing system of excursions, bent 
on pleasure and politics. The local politician looks upon 
politics as relaxation and change from the routine of his 
profession or trade. He is somewhat slow to understand 
that speeches, crowds, and cheers are sometimes out of place. 
Hawarden Park has had to be closed to large parties after 
Bank Holiday in August. Without this regulation it would 
be impossible to secure even a moderate amount of privacy 
to Mr. Gladstone. And even now an occasional large party 
arrives at Hawarden Station from Lancashire in ignorance 
of the restriction. To avoid spoiling their day's pleasure 
they'are"admitted to the park, and Mr. Gladstone has then 
to choose between staying within doors, or encountering the 
well-meant but inconvenient enthusiasm of the excursionists. 
So large during the summer months of this year became f he 



LIFE AT IIAWARDEN 261 

number of visitors on Sundays, so considerable was the 
consequent inconvenience to the parishioners, that Mr 
Gladstone had to cease reading the lessons in church. 
Although the general behaviour of those who annually visit 
Hawarden is excellent, yet the natural consequence is the 
gradual disappearance of ferns and plants which can be 
easily uprooted and removed. Some unmannerly person 
even cut out Mr. Gladstone's name from his Bible in church. 
But these are small drawbacks, having regard to the evident 
enjoyment derived by excursionists from the use of the park 
and grounds. 

' For some months past Mr. Gladstone has been busily 
engaged with the preliminary steps of a scheme he has long 
had in his mind. The number of his books began to be 
too great for the available space in Hawarden Castle. They 
overflowed into every room. The Glynne library occupied 
two large rooms. From the first, Mr. Gladstone had mi- 
nutely to study the best system of storing books, and his 
views on the subject have recently been given in the 
"Nineteenth Century." By systematic and ingenious eco- 
nomy of space, the bulk of 20,000 volumes was housed in 
two rooms. But still the number grew, and large packages 
unopened began to encumber the rooms. Several thousands 
of these have now been removed to a commodious iron 
building fitted as a library. Mr. Gladstone is known to have 
a large ulterior scheme for founding a library, and the present 
erection is a half-way house. Both in the old and new 
library the position of every book was determined by Mr. 
Gladstone himself, and he rarely has any difficulty in laying 
his hand upon the book that may be required. The 
collection is strong in contemporary and general literature, 
strongest, perhaps, in theology and the classics, while works 



262 AIR. GLADSTONE 

on Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare abound. There are 
three writing tables in the room. At one Mrs. Gladstone sits. 
Of the other two, one is used by Mr. Gladstone for his 
correspondence, the other is devoted to his literary work. 
Stored in the deep recesses of the bookshelves are stacks of 
walking-sticks, axes, and many other miscellaneous presents 
which have been received at various times. About the 
room are busts and engravings of old friends and colleagues, 
Sidney Herbert, the Duke of Newcastle, Canning, and 
Tennyson among others. The " Temple of Peace," as the 
study is called, is always available for those staying in the 
house who wish for quiet reading. 

1 In equally good order are Mr. Gladstone's papers. The 
accumulated correspondence, official papers, and memoranda 
of fifty years of public life occupy a considerable space. 
For years they were stowed in wooden cupboards in different 
rooms, and had the old woodwork of the house caught fire, 
documents of the greatest historical interest would probably 
have been destroyed. Fortunately they have all been 
methodically arranged in the fireproof octagon, of which 
Mr. Gladstone is extremely proud. 

1 The daily routine of Mr. Gladstone's life at Hawarden 
is well known. The early walk to church before breakfast ; 
the morning devoted chiefly to literary work and the severer 
kinds of business and study ; half an hour or an hour for 
reading or writing after luncheon ; the afternoon walk or visit, 
or tree cutting ; correspondence and reading after a cup of tea 
until dinner-time. As a rule Mr. Gladstone reads after 
dinner until about 11.15. He greatly enjoys an occasional 
game at backgammon. Of chess, as a game, he has the 
very highest opinion, but he finds it too long and exciting. 
Whist he enjoys, but he seldom takes a hand. Music he 



WOODCRAFT 263 

delights in, and as all the members of his family are musical, 
and two or three are performers above the average, his wishes 
in this direction can be readily met. 

' During the later years Mr. Gladstone's family have dis- 
couraged him from cutting down trees. Few forms of 
exercise are more violent and trying to the heart, and at Mr. 
Gladstone's age the risk must be considerable. Still he has 
occasionally wielded the axe this summer with much of his 
old power and with extraordinary energy and keenness. 
Tree cutting has its dangers, but in his thirty years' experience 
of it Mr. Gladstone has been fortunate in escaping them. 
The only serious inconvenience he ever suffered was from a 
chip which caused a slight abrasion of the eyeball. Once 
an accident almost occurred. Mr. Henry Gladstone had 
climbed a large lime tree which Mr. Gladstone had begun to 
cut, when, without any warning and owing to unexpected rot in 
its centre, the tree fell. At the moment Mr. Henry was high 
up, and on the underneath side. To the onlookers' relief 
he managed to get round the trunk as the tree was falling, 
and escaped with a shaking. The bough on which he had 
stood was smashed. Mr. Gladstone never cuts down a tree 
for the sake of the exercise. A doubtful tree is tried 
judicially. Sometimes its fate hangs in the balance for 
years. The opinion of the family is consulted, and fre- 
quently that of visitors. Mr. Ruskin sealed the fate of an 
oak ; Sir J. Millais decided that the removal of an elm 
would be a clear improvement. The trees at Hawarden are 
treated as the precious gifts of Nature with which no human 
hand should deal rashly. And when Mr. Gladstone does 
set to work he evidently bears in mind the correct view of 
Homer : 

Mz/rt toi cpvTUfiog f-iey' tifitifutv »/£ f3i)]<j>i. 



264 Mr. Gladstone 

'Whatever maybe the occupation of the moment, Mr. 
Gladstone's life at Hawarden is a period of contented and 
perfect enjoyment. It is full of interest and peace. Ever 
ready to take his part in local matters, whether it is the pro- 
motion of an intermediate school or a new water supply, the 
building of a gymnasium or the furthering of fruit and 
flower cultivation, he delights in the quiet and familiar scenes 
far removed from the worries and storms of public life. He 
lives among his own people, and for his own enjoyment asks 
for nothing more.' 

[Reproduced, by the kind permission of the proprietors, 
from the Daily Graphic^ October 25, 1890.] 



25s 



CHAPTER XI 

Analysis of Character — Religiousness — Attitude towards Nonconformity 
— Love of power — Political courage — Conservative instincts — Love 
of beauty — Literary tastes — Mastery of finance — Business-like apti- 
tude — Temper — Courtesy — Attractiveness in private life. 

Whoever attempts to write a study of Mr. Gladstone's 
character undertakes to handle a rather complicated theme. 
He has to analyze a nature agitated and perplexed by a 
dozen cross-currents of conflicting tendency, and to assign 
their true causes to psychological phenomena which are 
peculiarly liable to misinterpretation. 

Mr. Gladstone has for the last half-century loomed so 
large in the public view as the politician, the Minister, and 
latterly the demagogue, that other and deeper aspects of 
his character have been overlooked and obscured. Thus 
it will probably seem to savour of paradox to affirm, as 
the writer is prepared to do, that the paramount factor of 
Mr. Gladstone's nature is his religiousness. The religion 
in which Mr. Gladstone lives and moves and has his being 
is an intensely vivid and energetic principle, passionate on 
its emotional side, definite in its theory, imperious in its 
demands, practical, visible, and tangible in its effects. It 
runs like a silver strand through the complex and variegated 
web of his long and chequered life. We saw at the beginning 
of this book that he wished to take Holy Orders instead of 
entering Parliament. Had the decision gone differently, 



266 MR. GLADSTONE 

the most interesting of all the 'Lives of the Archbishops 
of Canterbury ' would still be unwritten. But the mere 
choice of a profession could make no difference to the 
ground-tone of Mr. Gladstone's thought. While a politician 
he was still essentially, and above all, a Christian — some 
would say, an ecclesiastic. Through all the changes and 
chances of a political career, as a Tory, as a Home Ruler, 
in office and in opposition, sitting as a duke's nominee for 
a pocket-borough, and enthroned as the idol of an adoring 
democracy, Mr. Gladstone 

Plays in the many games of life, that one 
Where what he most doth value must be won. 

In his own personal habits, known to all men, of systematic 
devotion ; in his rigorous reservation of the Sunday for 
sacred uses ; in his written and spoken utterances ; in his 
favourite studies ; in his administration of public affairs ; in 
the grounds on which he has based his opposition to policies 
of which he has disapproved — he has steadily and constantly 
asserted for the claims of religion a paramount place in 
public consideration, and has reproved the stale sciolism 
which thinks, or affects to think, that Christianity, as a 
spring of human action, is an exhausted force. 

It is this religiousness of Mr. Gladstone's character which 
has incurred the bitter wrath of those large sections of 
society whose lax theories and corresponding practice his 
example has constantly rebuked ; which has won for him 
the affectionate reverence of great masses of his countrymen 
who have never seen his face ; and which accounts for the 
singular loyalty to his person and policy of those Noncon- 
formist bodies from whom, on the score of merely theological 
opinion, he is so widely separated. Mr. Gladstone's present 



NONCONFORMITY AND NONCONFORMISTS 267 

attitude towards Nonconformity and Nonconformists, so 
strikingly different from that which marked his earlier days, 
is due, no doubt, in part, to the necessities of his political 
position, but due much more to his growing conviction that 
English Nonconformity means a robust and consistent appli- 
cation of the principles of the Kingdom of God to the busi- 
ness of public life. This was well illustrated by what occurred 
at the Memorial Hall in Farringdon Street on May 8, 1888, 
when Mr. Gladstone received an address in support of his 
Irish policy, signed by 3,730 Nonconformist ministers. To 
this address, Mr. Gladstone replied : 

I accept with gratitude as well as pleasure the address which 
has been presented to me, and I rejoice again to meet you within 
walls which, although no great number of years have passed 
since their erection, have already become historic, and which 
are associated in my mind and in the minds of many with 
honourable struggles, sometimes under circumstances of de- 
pression, sometimes under circumstances of promise, but always 
leading us forward, whatever may have been the phenomena of 
the moment, along the path of truth and justice. I am very 
thankful to those who have signed this address for the courageous 
manner in which they have not scrupled to associate their 
political action and intention with the principles and motives of 
their holy religion. 

The best theologian in England (as Dr. Dollinger called 
Mr. Gladstone) cannot help being aware that the theories 
of Dissent, both in respect of their historic basis and of 
their relation to scientific Theology, leave much to be desired; 
but not the less clearly does he recognize the fact that, on 
those supreme occasions of public controversy when the path 
of politics crosses the path of morality, the Nonconformist 
bodies of England have pronounced unhesitatingly for jus- 
tice and mercy, while our authorized teachers of religion 



263 MR. GLADSTONE 

have too often been silent or have spoken on the wrong 
side. 

This keen sense of the religious bearing of political 
questions has determined Mr. Gladstone's action in not a 
few crises of his parliamentary life. It was the exacting 
rigour of a religious theory that drove him out of the 
Cabinet in 1845. It was his belief that marriage is a 
sacred and indissoluble union which dictated his per- 
tinacious opposition to the Divorce Bill in 1857. Ten 
years later, he felt that the Irish Establishment could no 
longer be maintained, because it could plead neither practical 
utility nor ' the seal and signature of ecclesiastical descent.' 
In the Eastern Question he discerned that all the various 
interests which dread and loathe Christianity were making 
common cause on behalf of the Power which has for 
centuries persecuted the worshippers of Christ in Eastern 
Europe, and that the godless cynicism which scoffed at the 
red horrors of Bulgaria was not so much an unchristian as an 
anti-Christian sentiment. In more recent days, it is very 
probable that among the forces which have drawn him into 
his passionate advocacy of Irish Nationalism has been the 
fact that the cause of Home Rule is to a great extent the 
cause of that august and authoritative Communion to which 
the Irish race is so profoundly attached, and which, at 
least in some of its aspects, Mr. Gladstone himself has 
always regarded with a friendly eye. 

When he handles the religious aspects of a political 
question, Mr. Gladstone's eloquence rises to its highest flight, 
as in his speech on the second reading of the Affirmation 
Bill in 1883. Under the system then existing (which ad- 
mitted Jews to Parliament but excluded Atheists), to deny 
the existence of God was a fatal bar, but to deny the 



'THAT SOLEMN ACCOUNT' 269 

Christian Creed was no bar at all. This, Mr. Gladstone 
contended, was a formal disparagement of Christianity, 
which was thereby relegated to a place of secondary import- 
ance. Those who heard it will not easily forget the solemn 
splendour of the passage in which this argument was en- 
forced. 

The administration of government has always been, in 
Mr. Gladstone's hands, a religious act. Even in the trivial 
concerns of ordinary life the sense of responsibility to an 
invisible Judge for the deeds done in the body presses on 
him with overwhelming weight. He is haunted by responsi- 
bility for time, and talents, and opportunities, and influence, 
and power ; responsibility for reading, and writing, and 
speaking, and eating, and drinking ; and to this the task of 
government superadds responsibility for the material and 
moral interests of the people entrusted to his charge ; re- 
sponsibility, above all else, for much that vitally affects the 
well-being, the efficiency, and the spiritual repute of that 
great religious institution with which the commonwealth of 
England is so closely intertwined. In the Bidding Prayer 
at Oxford the congregation is exhorted to pray for those in 
authority that they ' may labour to promote the glory of 
God and the present and future welfare of mankind ; re- 
membering always that solemn account which they must 
one day give before the judgment-seat of Christ.' Those 
who have been behind the scenes when Mr. Gladstone was 
preparing to make some important appointment in the 
Church, and have witnessed the anxious and solemn care 
with which he approaches the task, have seen that high ideal 
of duty translated into practice. 

If we assign the first place in Mr. Gladstone's character 
to his religiousness, we must certainly allow the second to 



2/0 MR. GLADSTONE 

his love of power. And it is neither a sarcasm nor a jest 
(though it sounds like both) to say that this second charac- 
teristic is in some measure related to the first. From his 
youth up Mr. Gladstone has been conscious of high aims 
and great abilities. He has earnestly desired to serve his 
day and generation, and he has known that he has un- 
usual capacity for giving effect to this desire. In order that 
those powers and that capacity may have free scope, it has 
been necessary that their possessor should be in a posi- 
tion of authority, of leadership, of command. And thus it 
comes about that ambition has been part of his religion ; 
for ambition means with him nothing else than the resolute 
determination to possess that official control over the 
machine of State which will enable him to fulfil his pre- 
destined part in the providential order, and to do, on the 
largest scale, and with the amplest opportunities, what he 
conceives to be his duty to God and man. This is Mr. 
Gladstone's love of power. It has nothing in common with 
the vulgar eagerness for place and pay and social standing 
which governs the lesser luminaries of the political heaven ; 
but, in itself an inborn and resistless impulse, it has become 
identified with his deliberate theory of the public good, and 
it is confirmed by the unbroken habit of a lifetime. As a 
Tory, as a Peelite, as a Liberal, and as a Home Ruler, Mr. 
Gladstone has passed the greater part of his life amid the 
excitements, the interests, and the responsibilities of office ; 
and, when not in office, he has found in the active guidance 
of a militant Opposition ample scope for the exercise of his 
astonishing gifts, and a scarcely diminished importance in 
the public eye. 

It is almost unnecessary to observe that Mr. Gladstone's 
love of power is supported by a splendid fearlessness. In 



{ RESURGAM ■ 27 1 

proposing in Parliament the national memorial to Lord 
Beaconsfield he referred in tones of genuine admiration to 
his dead rival's political courage ; and that great quality has 
been illustrated at least as signally in his own career. No 
dangers have been too threatening for him to face, no 
obstacles too formidable, no tasks too laborious, no heights 
too inaccessible. His courage has, indeed, its inconvenient 
side. He begins to build his towers without counting the 
cost, and in going to war forgets to calculate the relative 
strength of ten and twenty thousand. The natural conse- 
quence is frequent failure ; but failure only strengthens Mr. 
Gladstone's resolve and stimulates his endeavour. Often 
defeated, he never despairs ; and though his friends have 
more than once written Requiescat on what they believed to 
be his political tomb, he persists in substituting Resurgam. 

The love of power and the courage which supports it are 
allied in Mr. Gladstone with a marked imperiousness. Of 
this quality there is no trace in his manner, which is cour- 
teous, conciliatory, and even deferential ; nor in his speech, 
which breathes an almost exaggerated humility. But the im- 
periousness shows itself in the more effectual form of action ; 
in his sudden resolves, his invincible insistence, his reck- 
lessness of consequences to himself and his friends, his 
habitual assumption that the civilized world and all its units 
must agree with him, his indignant astonishment at the bare 
thought of dissent or resistance, his incapacity to believe 
that an overruling Providence will permit him to be frus- 
trated or defeated. 

It is this last peculiarity of Mr. Gladstone's temper which 
has exposed him to the severest shocks of adverse fate. His 
friends and relations, his colleagues and supporters and 
official guides, know so well this imperious optimism, and 



2^2 MR. GLADSTONE 

shrink so naturally from the consequences of disturbing it, 
that they insensibly fall into the habit of assuring him that 
everything is going as he wishes, and that human daring and 
political perversity will not, in the long run, venture to 
withstand his wise and righteous will. It is the inconvenient 
property of those who systematically speak smooth things 
to prophesy deceits ; and again and again, as in 1874 and 
1886, Mr. Gladstone's complaisant counsellors have pre- 
pared for him a rude awakening from sweet dreams of 
majorities and office to the grim reality of defeat and 
Opposition. 

Mr. Gladstone's love of power is one of the many features 
of his character which have been widely misconstrued. His 
political opponents cannot or will not believe that it is only 
a synonym for disinterested devotion to the public good. 
Another point in which the general estimate of him is 
curiously erroneous is his feeling about change. It has 
fallen to his lot to propose so many and such momentous 
alterations in our political system that all his enemies, and 
some of his friends, have come to regard him as a man to 
whom change for its own sake is agreeable. Never was 
a greater error. Mr. Gladstone is essentially and funda- 
mentally a Conservative. This temper of his mind power- 
fully affects his feelings about great authors of all types and 
times. He is a cavalier all over in his devotion to Sir 
Walter Scott. He reveres St. Thomas Aquinas as a chief 
exponent of the great principle of Authority. His sentiments 
towards Edmund Burke may be given in his own words, 
addressed to the writer of this book in 1884. 

I turn from these troublesome reflections to say how glad 
(not surprised) I am that Burke has a place in your admira- 
tion, and on most subjects, as I conjecture, in your confidence. 



A DISCIPLE OF BURKE 273 

Yet I remember a young Tory's saying at Oxford he could not 
wish to be more Tory than Burke. He was perhaps the 
maker of the Revolutionary War ; and our going into that war 
perhaps made the Reign of Terror ; and, without any ' per- 
haps,' almost unmade the liberties, the Constitution, even the 
material interests and prosperity of our country. Yet I vene- 
rate and almost worship him, though I can conceive its 
being argued that all he did for freedom, justice, religion, 
purity of government in other respects and other quarters, 
was less than the mischief which flowed out from the Reflec- 
tions. 

I would he were now alive. 

His natural bias is to respect institutions as they are, 
and nothing short of plain proof that their effect is in- 
jurious will induce him to set about reforming them. And 
even when he is impelled by strong conviction to undertake 
the most fundamental and far-reaching alterations of our 
polity, the innate conservatism of his mind makes him 
try to persuade himself that the revolution which he con- 
templates is in truth a restoration. Thus, his favourite 
argument for Home Rule is that it is merely a return to 
the system of government which commended itself to the 
wisdom of our fathers, and which their presumptuous 
children heedlessly set aside ; and he seeks to allay the 
alarms of his followers by dwelling on the encouraging 
prospect that an Irish Parliament will probably contain 
a large majority of Conservatives. 

The Church, regarded as a divinely-constituted society, 
has had no more passionate defender than the author of 
' Church Principles considered in their Results ' and ' The 
State in its Relations with the Church.' His old-world 
devotion to the Throne has often and severely tried the 
patience of his Radical followers, as when, amid the plaudits 

T 



274 • M R - GLADSTONE 

of his foes and the moans of his friends, he championed 
the Royal Grants in 1889. His sentiment of loyalty is 
exceedingly strong, and was beautifully expressed in the 
letter which he addressed to the eldest son of the Prince 
of Wales, on the attainment of his majority : 

Hawarden Castle, January 7, 1885. 

Sir, — As the oldest among the confidential servants of her 
Majesty, I cannot allow the anniversary to pass without notice 
which will to-morrow bring your Royal Highness to full age, 
and thus mark an important epoch in your life. The hopes and 
intentions of those whose lives lie, like mine, in the past are of 
little moment ; but they have seen much, and what they have 
seen suggests much for the future. 

There lies before your Royal Highness in prospect the 
occupation, I trust at a distant date, of a throne which, to me 
at least, appears the most illustrious in the world, from its 
history and associations, from its legal basis, from the weight 
of the cares it brings, from the loyal love of the people, and 
from the unparalleled opportunities it gives, in so many ways 
and in so many regions, of doing good to the almost countless 
numbers whom the Almighty has placed beneath the sceptre of 
England. 

I fervently desire and pray, and there cannot be a more 
animating prayer, that your Royal Highness may ever grow 
in the principles of conduct, and may be adorned with all 
the qualities, which correspond with this great and noble 
vocation. 

And, Sir, if sovereignty has been relieved by our modern 
institutions of some of its burdens, it still, I believe, remains 
true that there has been no period of the world's history at 
wlvch successors to the monarchy could more efficaciously 
contribute to the stability of a great historic system, dependent 
even more upon love than upon strength, by devotion to their 
duties and by a bright example to the country. This result we 
have happily been permitted to see, and other generations will, 
I trust, witness it anew. 



'THE STIFFEST OF CONSERVATIVES' 275 

Heartily desiring' that in the life of your Royal Highness 
every private and personal may be joined with every public 
blessing, I have the honour to remain, Sir, your Royal High- 
ness's most dutiful and faithful servant, 

\Y. E. Gladstone. 

Even' the House of Lords, which has so often mutilated 
and delayed great measures on which he set his heart, still 
has a definite place in his respect, if not in his affection. 
Indeed, he attaches to the possession of rank and what it 
brings with it an even exaggerated importance. 

In all the petty details of daily life, in his tastes, his 
habits, his manners, his way of living, his social prejudices, 
Mr. Gladstone is the stiffest of Conservatives. Indeed, 
he not seldom carries his devotion to the existing order to 
a ludicrous point, as when he gravely laments the aboli- 
tion of the nobleman's gown at Oxford, or deprecates the 
admission of the general public to Constitution Hill. 

It is true that Mr. Gladstone has sometimes been forced 
by conviction or fate or political necessity to be a revo- 
lutionist on a large scale ; to destroy an Established 
Church ; to add two millions of voters to the electorate ; 
to attack the parliamentary union of the Kingdoms. But, 
after all, these changes were, in their inception, distasteful 
to their author. He has allowed us to see the steps by 
which he arrived at the belief that they were necessary, 
and, with admirable candour, has shown us that he started 
with quite opposite prepossessions. His mind is singularly 
receptive, and his whole life has been spent in unlearn- 
ing the prejudices in which he was educated. His love of 
freedom has steadily developed, and he has applied its 
principles more and more courageously to the problems of 
government. Eut it makes some difference to the future 

t 2 



276 MR. GLADSTONE 

of a democratic State whether its leading men are eagerly 
on the look-out for something to revolutionize, or approach 
a constitutional change by the gradual processes of convic- 
tion and conversion. It is this consideration which makes 
Mr. Gladstone's life and continued ascendency in the 
Liberal party so important to the country. In spite of all 
that has come and gone, he is a restraining and a conserva- 
tive force. And those who know him best, as they peer 
into the future, feel something of that misgiving which filled 
the air in Queen Elizabeth's latter days, when, 'all men 
pointed to the Queen's white hairs and said, " When that 
snow melteth there will be a flood." ' 

Mr. Gladstone's religiousness, his love of power, his 
Conservative bias, are aspects of his character which have 
often been the ground of debate and dispute. There can- 
not be two opinions about his love of beauty. It is a 
many-sided and far-reaching enthusiasm. Beauty in nature, 
in art, in literature, appeals to him with irresistible force. 
For what is merely rare, or curious, or costly, he does not 
care a jot ; but he kindles with contagious enthusiasm over 
a fine picture, a striking statue, a delicate piece of artistic 
workmanship. Good music stirs him to his depths. In 
literature he exacts beauty both of form and of substance. 
No mere skill in character-painting, or subtlety of analysis, 
or creative force, will win his praise for a writer who, like 
George Elict, is powerful rather than beautiful, or dwells, 
however skilfully, on the repulsive aspects of life and 
character. 

It is his devotion to spiritual and physical beauty which 
has made him a life-long, a passionate, almost an adoring, 
disciple of Homer and Dante. With regard to the former, 
it is not necessary to follow Mr, Gladstone in all the 



HOMER AND UANTE 27; 

ethnological and religious theories which, in successive 
works, published in 1858, 1869, 1876, and 1890, he has 
laid before the world. Whether sound or erroneous, they 
are founded on an absolute and detailed knowledge of the 
text— a commonplace but essential equipment for the task 
of interpretation which even professional scholars too often 
neglect. Mr. Gladstone's published studies in Homer 
have received high praise from such competent authorities 
as Professor Jebb and Professor Freeman, though these 
learned men do not accept all his theories or follow his 
deductions from the narrative. He has ' done such justice 
to Homer and his age as Homer has never received out 
of his own land. He has vindicated the true position of 
the greatest of poets ; he has cleared his tale and its actors 
from the misrepresentation of ages.' 

Speaking to the boys at Eton on March 14, 1S91, Mr. 
Gladstone gave this curious fragment of autobiography : 

When I was a boy I cared nothing at all about the Homeric 
gods. I did not enter into the subject until thirty or forty years 
afterwards, when, in a conversation with Dr. Pusey, who, like me, 
had been an Eton boy, he told me, having more sense and brains 
than I had, that he took the deepest interest and had the 
greatest curiosity about these Homeric gods. They are of the 
greatest interest, and you cannot really study the text of Homer 
without gathering fruits ; and, the more you study him, the more 
you will be astonished at the multitude of lessons and the com- 
pleteness of the picture which he gives you. There is a perfect 
encyclopaedia of human character and human experience in the 
poems of Homer, more complete in every detail than is else- 
where furnished to us of Achaian life. 

Mr. Gladstone's love of Dante is reinforced by his 
theological sense. At the most, the theology of Homer 
belongs to the region of natural religion ; but in Dante 



278 MR. GLADSTONE 

Mr. Gladstone finds a poet after his own heart, in whom 
passion and pathos and a profound sense of the underlying 
tragedy of human life are penetrated by the influence of 
the Christian dogma. His sentiments on this head are 
well expressed in the following translation of an Italian 
letter which, on December 20, 1882, he addressed to 
Professor Giambattista Guilioni, of Rome : 

Illustrious Sir, — Albeit I have lost the practice of the Italian 
language, yet I must offer you many, many thanks for your 
kindness in sending me your admirable work, ' Dante Spiegato 
con Dante.' You have been good enough to call that supreme 
poet 'a solemn master' for me. These are not empty words. 
The reading of Dante is not merely a pleasure, a tour de force ^ 
a lesson ; it is a vigorous discipline for the heart, the intellect, 
whole man. In the school of Dante I have learned a great 
part of that mental provision (however insignificant it be) which 
has served me to make this journey of human life up to the 
term of nearly seventy-three years. And I should like to ex- 
tend your excellent phrase, and to say that he who labours for 
Dante, labours to serve Italy, Christianity, the world. — Your 

very respectful servant, 

W. E. Gladstone. 

Among modern writers, his love of Lord Tennyson is 
essentially due to his love of beauty ; and his essay on 
Tennyson, published in the ' Quarterly Review ' for October 
1859, may be cited as a suggestive and delicate piece of 
critical writing. 

In Mr. Gladstone's character several seemingly incon- 
sistent qualities are combined ; and it is curious to note, 
in a temperament so highly emotional, imaginative, and 
even theatrical, a strong cross-current of business-like 
instinct. Those who speculate in matters of race and 
pedigree might be inclined to suggest that Mr. Gladstone 



FINANCE AND FREE TRADE 279 

owes the ideal elements of his nature to his mother's Gaelic 
ancestors, and the practical elements to those shrewd 
burghers of Leith and lairds of Lanarkshire from whom, 
through his father, he descends. But, however this may be, 
Mr. Gladstone's taste for commercial enterprise is as clearly- 
marked a feature of his character as his rhetorical fervour 
or his dialectical subtlety. 

A colleague who knew him well said : ' The only 
two things that Gladstone really cares for are the 
Church and finance.' And though, when we regard his 
present passion for Home Rule, this seems paradoxical, 
still it has a certain element of truth. The Church 
and finance are the only two departments of public affairs 
which have interested him keenly and constantly from his 
earliest days till now, and with regard to which his whole 
course has been consistent. It was in the realm of finance 
that his most remarkable achievements were won. He was 
the first Chancellor of the Exchequer who ever made the 
Budget romantic. He believes in Free Trade as the gospel 
of social salvation. He revels in figures ; and every detail 
of price and value, of production and distribution, of money 
and money's worth, and every form of enquiry and specula- 
tion which tends to illustrate these subjects, exercises a 
resistless fascination over his mind. 

The gravity and earnestness of Mr. Gladstone's nature 
are allied with a strong temper. And there are few more 
serviceable qualities than a strong temper kept sternly 
under control. Such is the case with Mr. Gladstone ; and, 
while it is easy to discern the passionate and impetuous 
nature as it works within, it is impossible not to admire the 
vigorous self-mastery by which it is turned from harmful into 
useful channels. He has a grand capacity for generous indig- 



280 MR. GLADSTONE 

nation, and nothing is finer than to see the changing lights 
and shades on his mobile and expressive face when some 

Tale of injury calls forth 
The indignant spirit of the North. 

The hawk -like features become more strongly marked, the 
onyx-eyes flash and glow, the voice grows more resonant, 
and the utterance more emphatic. It is droll to observe 
the discomfiture of a story-teller who has fondly thought to 
tickle the great man's sense of humour by an anecdote which 
depends for its point upon some trait of cynicism, baseness, 
or sharp practice. He finds his tale received in grim silence, 
and then perceives to his dismay that what was intended to 
entertain has only disgusted. ' Do you call that amusing? I 
call it devilish,' was the emphatic comment with which a cha- 
racteristic story about Lord Beaconsfield was once received 
by his eminent rival. 

In personal dealing Mr. Gladstone is no doubt quickly 
roused ; but is placable, reasonable, and always willing to 
hear excuses or defence. And when the course of life is 
flowing smoothly, and nothing happens to disturb the 
stream, he is delightful company. He has a keen faculty 
for enjoyment, great appreciation of civility and attention, 
and a nature completely unspoilt by success and promi- 
nence and praise. 

A most engaging quality of Mr. Gladstone's character is 
his courtesy. It is invariable and universal. A pretty 
and touching instance of it is contained in the following 
letter. A young lady, who was suffering from consumption, 
sent to Mr. Gladstone on his birthday, which was also her 
own, a letter containing a bookmark, on which she had 
embroidered the words : ' The Bible our Guide.' She 



PERSONAL CHARM 28 1 

received in return some gifts suitable to an invalid, to- 
gether with the following letter in Mr. Gladstone's hand- 
writing : 

Hawarden Castle, Chester, January i, 1883. 

Dear Madam,— I am greatly touched by your kindness in 
having worked a bookmark for me, under the circumstances at 
which you glance in such feeling and simple terms. May the 
guidance which you are good enough to desire on my behalf 
avail you fully on every step of that journey in which, if I do 
not precede, I cannot but shortly follow you. — I remain, dear 
Madam, faithfully yours, 

W. E. Gladstone, 

Mr. Gladstone has the ceremonious manners of the old 
school, and alike to young and old, men and women, he 
pays the compliment of assuming that they are on his oivn 
intellectual level and furnished with at least as much in- 
formation as will enable them to follow and to understand 
him. Indeed, his manner towards his intellectual inferiors is 
almost ludicrously humble. He consults, defers, enquires ; 
argues his point where he would be fully justified in laying 
down the law ; and eagerly seeks information from the 
mouths of babes and sucklings. Still, after all, he is 
frankly human, and it is part of human nature to like 
acquiescence better than contradiction, and to value more 
highly than they deserve the characters and attainments of 
second-rate people who agree with one. Hence it arises 
that all Mr. Gladstone's geese are swans. He shows 
what Bishop Wilberforce called 'a want of sharp-sighted 
clearness as to others,' and he is consequently exposed 
to the arts of scheming mediocrities, on whose interested 
opinions he is apt to place a fatally implicit reliance. 

In order to form the highest and the truest estimate of 



282 MR. GLADSTONE 

Mr. Gladstone's character it is necessary to see him at 
home. There are some people who appear to the best 
advantage on the distant heights, elevated by intellectual 
eminence above the range of scrutiny, or shrouded from 
too close observation by the misty glamour of great 
station and great affairs. Others excel in the middle 
distance of official intercourse, and in the friendly but 
not intimate relations of professional and public life. 
But the noblest natures are those which are seen at 
their best in the close communion of the home, and here 
Mr. Gladstone is pre-eminently attractive. The dignity, 
the order, the simplicity, and, above all, the fervent 
and manly piety of his daily life, form a spectacle even 
more impressive than his most magnificent performances in 
Parliament or on the platform. He is the idol of those who 
are most closely associated with him, whether by the ties 
of blood, of friendship, or of duty ; and perhaps it is his 
highest praise to say that he is not unworthy of the devotion 
which he inspires. 



INDEX 



ABE 

Abercorn, Lord, 16 

Aberdeen, Lord, 47, no, 112, 117, 118, 

124, 126, 129, 132, 140 
Aberdeen, freedom of, 220 
Abolition of slavery, 21, 29, 31, 153 
Accident while shooting, 78 
Acland, Sir Thos., 16, 20, 48, 61 
Address at Newark, 28-29. See also 

1 Speeches] 
Affirmation Bill, 268-269 
Agricultural interest, 115-116 
1 Alabama,' 108, 218-220 
Albany, Mr. G.'s rooms in the, 48 
Albert, Prince, and Mr. G.'s first Bud- 
get, 120; Mr. G. leader of the House, 
147 ; Mr. G. and, at Manchester, 

i53 . 
Albert Victor, letter to Prince, 274-5 
Alderley Edge, 16 

Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, 64-65 
Alexandria, bombardment of, 250 
Alston, 21 

Althorp, Lord, 31, 36, 40-42 
American Civil War, 153-155, 218-220 
— soldiers, enlistment of, 133 
Ancestry of Mr. Gladstone, 1-3 
'Ancient and Modern Genius com- 
pared,' 12-13 
Anti-Corn Law League, 79-80 
Appropriation Clause, Irish Church Bill, 

36, 47 ... 
Army, commissions in, 217 
Arnold, Dr., 58 
Arthurshiel, 2 
Asaph, St., Bishop of, 16 
Ashley, Lord. See ' Lord Shaftesbury 
Athanasian Creed, 222, 224 
Australian legislatures, 87 
Austria and Prussia, 187 



Ballot, 217 

Baptism, Rev. G. C. Gorham and, 90 

Bath and Wells, Bishop of, 8 

Baxter, Mr., 219 

Beaconsfield, Lord. See ' B. Disraeli' 

Bentinck, Lord G., 122 

Beresford, Major, 116 



CAV 

Bethell, Sir R., 133 

Bible, Mr. G. and the, 24 ; revision of 

the, 216 
Biggar, Lanarkshire, 1, 2 
Birthplace of Mr. G., 1, 2 
Biscoe, Rev. Robt., 19 
Blachford, Lord, 8 
Blackheath, speech on, 221-222 
Blomfield, Bishop, 89-91 
Boards of Education, 61 
' Bouverie, Bartholomew ' (W. E. G.'s 

pseudonym), 12 
Bradley, Wm., 4 
Bright, Mr. H. A., 224 

— Mr. J., 123, 159, 181, 189, 193, 204, 
209 210, 235, 255 

Bruce, Hon. J., 8, 9, 19, 20 

— Hon. F.j 8,i 

Buccleuch, Duke of, 82, 193-194, 245 

Buckingham, Duke of, 143 145 

Budgets — of 1841, 63 ; Mr. Disraeli's 
first and second, 114-115 ; Mr. G.'s 
first, 117-120, 122; war, 125-126; 
of 1853, 125-126 ; of i860, 147-149 ; of 
1861, 151-153 J of " l88 5, 251, 2 78 

Bulgaria, 242-244, 268 

Bunsen, Baron, 53, 60, 65 

Burke, and the Turkish Empire, 127, 
249, 272-273 

Burton, Dr., 19 

Butler's, Bishop, doctrine, 24 



Cambridge, J. Milnes-Gaskell and, 

15 

Canada, Government of, 49 

Canning, Mr., Sir John Gladstone and 

4 ; tribute to memory of, 12-13, 16 

20 ; and Oxford University, 83, 182 

262 
— Lord, 8, 9 
Cardwell, Mr., 217 
Carlingford, Lord, 254 
Carlton Club, 116 

Carlyle, T., and England in 1832, 27 
Carnarvon, Lord, 192 
Catholic Emancipation, 20, 23 ; revival 

53, "i 



284 



MR. GLADSTONE 



CAV 

Cavendish, Lord F., 249 

Cecil, Lord R. See ' Lord Salisbury' 

Chalmers, Dr., 94 

Chamberlain, Mr., 252, 255 

Chandos, Lord, 143, 145 

'Chapter of Autobiography,' A, 203 

Chelmsford, Lord, 196 

China, 62 

Chinese, the, and the Arrow, 133 

Christ Church, 16-24 

' Christopher Inn,' Eton, 6, 7 

Church, Dean, and Mr. G., 245 

Church, the, in 1809, 3 ; a divine society, 

2 3 
Church of England, 68-69 ; and the Gor- 
hamjudgment, 89-91, 98; Dr. Newman 
and, 95 ; laity in the, 113 ; and Lord 
Aberdeen, 117 ; Mr. G. and, 130-131, 
135-137 ; and the Divorce Act, 135 ; 
Dr. Pusey and the, 171, 191, 239-240 

— in Ireland, 31, 33-36, 40, 41, 75 ; Lord 
J. Russell and, 47, 162-164, 188, 197- 
203, 206, 209, 210, 268 

Church and State, Book on, 53-59, 66, 

273 

' Church cess,' 34-35 

' Church Principles considered in their 
Results,' treatise on, 61-62, 273 

Church Rates, 48, 88 ; Bill for abolish- 
ing, 197 

Church Temporalities Bill, 33 

Civil War in America, 153-155 

Civis Romamis sitm, 103-103 

Clan Donachie. A. Robertson of the, 2 

Clarendon, Lord, 148, 179, 195, 215, 
218 

Clark, Dr., 230-231 

Classical education, 152 

— honours, 18-19 
Cleveland, Duke of, 178 
Clumber, 176 
Cobden, Mr., 147 

Coerc'on Bills, 34 40-41, 82, 247-248 
Coleridge, H. N., 61 

— Lord, 85, 209 
Collier, Sir R., 223 
Colvile, Sir Jas., 8, 12 
Conspiracy, the law of, 137-138 
Constitution Hill, 275 

' Contemporary Review,' 237, 239 
Corn Laws, repeal of the, 82-83 

— Trade, Lord John Russell and, 63 
Cory, Mr. W., vi 

Courtney, Mr., 254 

Cowper, Wm., 11 

Cox's ' Black Gowns and Red Coats, 

3° 

Cranborne, Lord. See 'Lord Salis- 
bury ' 

Cranbrook, Lord, 167, 209 

Crimean War, 123-126, 127 

Crime in Leinster, 33-34 

Crimes Act, 249, 251 

Cross, Lord, 203 

Cuddesdon Vicarage, 2Q 



EM A 

Daily Graphic, life at Hawarden, 260- 

264 
Dante, Mr. G.'s love of, 277-278 
Davis, Jefferson, 154 
Debate, Mr. G. in, 10, 38 
Debates of the Eton Society, 9-12, 38 
Deceased Wife's Sister, 87 
Demerara, slaves in, 32-33 
Democracy, Mr. R. Lowe and, 181 
Denison, Archdeacon, 117, 130 

— Mr. Speaker, 157 

Derby, Lord, 31, 40, 41, 70, 81, 102, 112, 
114, 116, 126, 132, 137, 139, 140, 143, 
149, 152, 178, 189, 194, 195 

— election, 117 
Derivation of ' Gledstanes,' 1 
Devonshire, Duke of, 8 
Dillwyn, Mr., 162-163 

Disraeli, B., and the crisis of 1834, 42- 
45 ; and Mr. Villiers, 79 ; and Eccle- 
siastical Titles Bill, 112 ; in office, 114 ; 
Budgets of, 114-115 ; and Lord Aber- 
deen's Ministry, 126, 129 ; leader of 
the House of Commons, 137-139 ; and 
the • franchise, 142 ; 178-179, 182, 
189 ; Reform Bill of, 192-194 ; Lord 
Clarendon and, 195 ; Prime Minister, 
196-197, 201 ; the Pall Mall Gazette 
and, 196-197 ; resignation of, 203, 246 ; 
and Bishop Wilberforce, 204 ; Reform 
Bill, 211 ; and education in Ireland 
225 ; 229 ; and Sir William Harcourt, 
234-235 ; and Bulgaria, 242-244 

Divorce Bill, 133-135, 268 

Dollinger, Dr., 76, 267 

Don Pacifico, 101-102 

Doyle, Sir F., 8, 11; anecdote of, 12, 
14-16, 20 

Dunkellin, Lord, 185 

Durham, Bishop of, in 

— Lord, 40 



Eastern Question, 108, 268 

East Indian planters, 48, 49 

Ecclesiastical litles Bill, 111-112, 216 

Economy, Mr. G. and public, 141 

'Edinburgh Review,' 215-216 

Edinburgh University, Lord Rector of, 
147, 164 

Education of the poor, 10, 212, 213 ; in 
Ireland, 69-71, 224, 225 ; for children 
in Factories (Bill), 68 

Educational machinery of the Church, 6r 

Edward I., H. de Gledstane and, 1 

Fgypt, 249-251 

Elections. See ' Greenwich,' ' Mid- 
Lothian,' ' Newark,' 'Oxford Uni- 
versity,' ' South Lancashire' 

Elementary education, Mr. Forsterand, 
213 

Elgin, Lord, 8, 17, 19 

Ellenborough, Lord, 138 

Elliot, Sir Fredk., 128-129 

Emancipation of slaves, 33 



INDEX 



285 



ENG 

England in 1809, 3 ; in 1832, 26-27 > ' n 
1834, 42-45 ; and Crimean War, 124- 
125 ; and foreign manufactures, 147 ; 
and America, 153 ; south of, and Re- 
form, 187 
English Education Bill, 212 
Epping Forest, the Queen and, 249 
Essay Society at Oxford, 20, 93 
Es ays : on Divorce, 134, 135 ; on 'Ecce- 
Homo,' 177 ; on ' Ritual and Ritu- 
alism,' 237 ; on Church of Eng- 
land, 240; on Vaticanism, 241; on 
Tennyson, 278 
Eton, 5-15, 23 ; visit to, 62-63 ; in March 
1891, 277 

Eton Miscellany,' 9, 12-15 
Eton Society, debates of the, 9 
Europe in 1809, 3 
Evangelicals at Oxford, 23 
Evvelme scandal, 222-223 
Examination at Oxford, 18-19 
Exeter College, Rector of, 166 



Farrer, Sir Thos., 226 

Fasque, 60 

Fenian prisoner-, the, 216 

Financial statements, 121 

Foreign policy of Mr. Disraeli, 244- 

245 
Forster, Mr. W. E., 180, 213, 225, 

248 
France, in 1832, 26-27 '• an d Greece, 102 ; 

Louis Napoleon and, 113 -, and 

Crimean War, 124 ; and British 

manufactures, 148-149 ; and Prussia, 

215 
Franchise, the, 142-143, 160-162, 191- 

192 
Freeman, Professor, 277 
Free Thought in Religion, 224 
Free Trade, 87-88, 109, 277 



Gaisford, Dr., 16, 114 
Games at Eton, 8-9 
Gillson, Mr., 29 
Gladstone, Mr. Henry, 263 

— Robertson, 6 

— Sir Thomas, 6, 60 

— Sir John, 2-5 ; and Demerara slaves, 
32-33 ; 60 

— William Evvart, birth of, 1-3 ; his 
father, 4-5 ; at Eton, 5-15 ; at Oxford, 
1624, 37-38 ; and Reform Bill, 21 ; 
choice of a profession, 24-25 ; in Italy, 
25, 27 ; at the age of twenty-two, 
28; and Newark election, 28 30 
in the House of Commons, 31 
and Demerara slaves, 32-33, 48 
early style of oratory, 38-39 ; a junior 
Lord of the Treasury, 45-47 ; Under 
secretary for the Colonies, 47 ; out of 
office, 47-48 ; and Rev. S. Wilberforce, 



GLA 

49-52, 68-69, 22 6 ; book on Church 
and btate, 53-59, 61-62 ; and Mr. J. 
Hope, 55-58, 65, 72-78, 92-100 ; mar- 
riage, 60-61 ; visit to Eton, 62-63 '» 
Vice-President of the Board of Trade, 
64 ; and Baron Bunsen, 64-65 ; and 
the tariff, 67, 71 ; a member of the 
Cabinet, 68; and Maynooth, 69-71, 
74 ; retirement from the Ministry, 71- 
73; visit to Munich, 76-78 ; accident 
to, 78 ; Secretary of State for the 
Colonies, 81 ; and the repeal of the 
Corn Laws, 82-83 > ar >d Oxford Un - 
versity, 83-86 ; division of career, 86- 
89 ; domestic bereavement, 88-89 ; and 
the Gorham judgment, 89-91 ; and 
Cardinal Manning, 91 ; and Mrs. 
Maxwell Scott, 92-97, 99-100 ; and 
Don Pacifico, 103-108 ; and Sir Robert 
Peel, 109; at Naples, 109-110 ; and 
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 112 ; and 
Mr. Disraeli's Budget, 115 ; Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer, 116, 117, 
126-128, 143, 177, 229 ; insulted at 
Carlton Club, 116 ; first Budget, 117- 
122 ; and Lord Aberdeen, 122 ; and 
Crimean W T ar, 123-127 ; a private 
member, 129, 133, 139 ; religious 
opinions of, 131, 135-137 ', and 
the Divorce Bill, 133-135 ; and the 
law of conspiracy, 137-138 ; and the 
Ionian Isles, 140 -141 ; and public 
economy, 141 ; and the Fran^ue, 
142, 160-162 ; and Oxford University , 
143-145, 163-172, 174 ; and Lord 
Palmerston, 146, 158-160 ; and music, 
147 ; and Edinburgh University, 147- 
148, 164 ; and the Budget of i860, 147 
-150 ; of 1861, 151-152 ; and the 
American Civil War, 153-154 ; and 
the Irish Church, 162-164, I 97~ 20 J> 
206-207, 211 ; at Manchester and 
Liverpool, 172-174 ; and Duke of 
Newcastle, 176-177; and Lord I. 
Russell, 176-177, 196 ; Leader of the 
House of Commons, 177, 179 ; and 
Reform Bill of 1866, 180-185, 190-193, 
217 ; at Rome, 187-188 ; Disratii 
and, 192 ; and Church Rates, 197 ; 
and South Lancashire, 202-203 5 
Prime Minister, 203, 246, 254 ; visit to 
Hatfield, 204 ; and Irish Land Bill, 
212-213 ; and Lord Shaftesbury, 214 ; 
and Dean Stanley, 216 ; and Germany, 
France, &c, 215-216 ; and America, 
218-220 ; and Home Rule, 220-222, 
253-257; and education in Ireland, 
224-225 ; end of first administration, 
227-229, 232 ; and Lord Granville, 23 - 
232 ; and Public Worship Regulation 
Bill, 233-237 ; and theological con- 
troversies, 237-239 ; and Church of 
England, 239-241, 273, 279; and the 
Eastern Question, 244-245 ; and Ire- 
land, 33-36, 247-249, 251, 254-258 ; and 



286 



MR. GLADSTONE 



GLA 

Egypt, 349-250; fiftieth anniversary 
of* marriage, 259-260; daily life at 
Hawarden, 260-264, 281-282 ; analy- 
sis of character, 265-282 ; religious- 
ness, 265-266, 269 ; personal habits, 
266 ; and Nonce nformists, 267-268 ; 
and religious beaiing of political ques- 
tions, 268-269 ; love of power, 269- 
273 ; temper of, 271-272, 279-280 ; and 
Prince Albert Victor, 274 ; conserva- 
tive instincts of, 275 ; love of beauty, 
276-278 ; and finance, 278-279 ; cour- 
tesy of, 280-281. See also, ' Elections,' 
' Essays,' ' Letters,' ' Speeches ' 

Gladstone, Mrs., 60, 85, 88 

Gladstones, J., 2 

— Thomas, 2 

Gledstane=, family and estate of, 1-2 

Glynne, Sir Stephen, 60-61 

— - Miss Catherine, 60 

Glynne library, at Hawarden, 261 

Godley, Mr. Arthur, vi 

Gordon, General, 250 

— Sir Arthur, 122 

Gorham, Pev. G C, 89-91, 98 

Grafton, Duke of, 12 

Graham, Sir James, 41, 116, 127, T32, 

135-137; and Mr. Greville, 121-122, 

129-130 
Grant, Bishop (of Southwark), 59 
Granv.lle, Lord, 143, 150, 215, 226, 231- 

232, 238, 246 
Greece, and the Ionian Isles, 140- 

141 
Gieek Church at Jerusalem, 123-124^ 
Gieek Government and Don Pacifico, 

101-102 
Greenwich, 203, 221, 229, 230, 245 3 

Grenville, house of, 60 
Creville. Mr. Charles, 67, 72, 116 ; and 

Sir James Graham, 121-122, 129-130, 

132, i33. 138, 147-148 
Crey, Lord, 32-33, 35 ; his Cabinet, 

39-4 1 
Guilhni, Professor G., 278 



H ape as CoRPrs Act, 34 
Halifax, Lord, 21 

Hallam, Arthur, 8, 12, 14, 15, 21, 29, 
92 

— Mr. H. Fit7maurice, 63 
Hamilton, Bishop, 7 

— Mr. Edwa d, vi, 8 

— Duke of, 16 
Handley, 9 

Har.mer, L-rd J., 8, 12 
Hannah, Dr.. 163, 164, 198 
Harcourt, Sir Wm., 234-236 
H rrowby, Lcrd, 61 

Hartington, Lord, speech of, 143, 242- 

243, 246, 254, 255, 258 
Hatton's, Miss, at Eton, 9 
Hawarden, 60; life ut, 260-264 
Ji.tY.kin3, Dr., 144-H 



LET 

Haw trey, Mr., 7 

Hay war J, Mr. Abraham, 157 

Herbert, Sidney, Hon., 17 116,127 2 

262 
Herschell, Lord, 254 
Hervey, Lord Arthur, 7, 8 
High Church party at Oxford, 23 
Hodgson, 9 
Holland, Sir H., 157 
Homer, Mr. G. and, 276-277 
Home Rule for Ireland, 108, 220-222, 

268, 273, 279 ; Bill, 247, 253-258 
Hope Scott, Jas., 8, 17, 53 ; letters to, 

55-58, 65, 70, 72-75, 85, 92, 99-100 
Houghton, Lord, 17, 48, 58, 180, 187, 

192, 202 
Household suffrage, 194 
Howick, Lord, 32-33. See ' Lord 

Grey ' 
Hudson, Sir Jas., 42 
Hume, Mr., 36-37 
Huskisson, Mr., 16 

Imperialism, Mr. Disraeli's, 244-245 

Income tax, 11 7-1 20, 229 

Indian Mutiny, 138 

Inglis, Sir Robt., 85 

Intellectual effects produced on Mr. G. 
at Oxford, 22 

Ionian Isles, 140-141 

Ireland, in 1832, 26-27, 3i> 33 _ 36, 64, 75; 
Catholics in, 75; education in, 69-71, 
224-225 ; and Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 
112, 212-213, 220, 224, 247-249, 251, 
253-257 ; Bill for government of, 253 

Irish Church Establishment, 34-36, 162- 
164, 188, 197-203, 206, 209, 210, 268 ; 
Bill, 206-207, 209-210 

— Crimes Act, 249, 251 

— Land Bill, 212-213, 248, 257 

— potato famine, 80 
Italy, 25, 27, no 

James, Sir H., 254 
Jebb, Professor, 277 
Jerusalem, Anglican Bishopric at, 64- 

65 ; Dr. Newman and, 96 ; Holy 

Places of, 123 
Jewish disabilities, 21 
Jews in Parliament, 67, 87 

Keate, Dr., 6 
Keble, Rev. J., 36 
Kinglake, A., 8, 51 
Knapp, Rev. H. H., tutor, 6 

Leader, Mr. J. T., 20, 93 

Legacy-duty, 117 

Leinster, crime in, 33-34 

Letters : to Bishop VVilberforce, 49-52, 
68-69, 75, 80, 166, 167, 169- 171; to 
James Hope, 55~5 y > 65, 72-78 ; to Mr. 
Murray, <;8, fs; re Ma\nooth, 70; to 
Dr. C. Wordswcrth, 84-S5; to Lr. 



INDEX 



287 



LEW 

Blomfield, 89-91 ; to Mrs. Maxwell- 
Scott, 92-97 ; to Dr. Skinner, 113 ; to 
Archdeacon Denison, 130-131 ; on his 
religious opinions, 135-137 ; to Dr. 
Hawkins, 143-145 ; on classical educa- 
tion, 152 ; to Dr. Hannah on the Irish 
Church, 163-164 ; to Rector of Exeter 
College, 166 ; to Lord J. Russell, 176- 
177 ; to Lord Shaftesbury, 214 ; to Mr. 
Whalley, 220 ; to Lord Granville, 
231-232, 238 ; to Prince Albert Victor, 
274 ; to young lady at Wigan, 280- 
281 

Lewis, Sir G. C, 8, 132 

Libberton, parish of, 1 

Liddell, H. G., 17, 20 

Lincoln, Lord, 16, 20, 28, 81 

— Dean of, 157 

Liverpool, birthplace of Mr. Gladstone, 
1 ; John Gladstones at, 2 ; bribery and 
corruption at, 33 ; speech at the 
Collegiate Institution, 67 ; college, 
224 

London and the Reform Bill, 187 

— Bishop of, and St. Alban's, Holborn, 
237 

— house, Mr. G.'s, 60 
Longley, Archbishop, 191 

Lowe, Robert. See Lord Sherbrooke 

Lushington, Dr., 130-131 

Lyn lhu-st, Lord, 42, 150 

Lyttelton, Lord, 60, 61, 62 

Lytton, Lord, 141 

Lytton's, Lord, ' New Timon,' 6-7 



Macaulay, Lord, on Ireland 33 ; and 
Mr. G.'s book, 59 ; and China, 62 

McCarthy's, J., ' History of Our Own 
Times,' vi. 

Macclesfield, 16 

Magee, Bishop, 211 

Ma den speech at Oxford Union, 20-21 ; 
in House of Commons, 32-33 

Malmesbury, Lord, 68, 114, 132, 147, 
20 r 

Malt, duty on, 114-115 

Manchester, nominated for, 49 ; address 
at, 153 ; speech at Free Trade Hall, 
172-173 

Manning, Cardinal, 16-17. IQ > 2 4j 54> 
5°) 7°> 9 2 > 99 j letter to Mrs. G., 259- 
200 

Mansel, Professo r 143, 144 

Marriage o» Mr. G., Co -61 ; fiftieth anni- 
versary of, 259-260 

— Divorce Bill and, 134-135, 263 

Mathematical honours, 19 

Maur'ce, Rev. F. D., 20, 61-62, 85 86, 

194 i95 
Maxwell Scott, Mrs., 92-97, 100 
Maynooth College, 69-71, 74, 85, 198 
Melbourne, Lord, 41-42 
Mia'.l, Mr. Edward, 214 
Mid Lothian, 245 



FAM 

Military organization, 217 
Militia, reorganizing of tne, 114 
Millais, Sir J., 263 
Milnes-Gaskell, J., 8, 9, 12, 15 
Moberly, Bishop, 84 
Molesworth, Sir Wm., 117, 14 
Moncrieff, H., 20 
Monteagle, Lord, 149 
Morley, Mr. John, 254 
Mount-Temple, Lord, 11 
Munich, 76 

Murchison, Sir Roderick, 
Murray, Mr. J., 65-66 
Music, Mr. G. and, 146, 276 



Naples, 109-110 
Napoleon in 1809, 3 

— Louis, 113, 137, 147 
Navarino, battle of, 16 
Neapolitan Government, the, 110 
Negro melodies, 146 
Newark, 28 29, 45-46, 49, 64, 81 
Newcastle, Duke of, 16, 27 29, 54, 62, 

81, 116 ; death of, 176 ; 262 

— Scholarship at Eton, 62, 63 

— speech at, 153, 154 

Newman, Cardinal, 23, 53, 54, 58, 61, 

94-97 
' Nineteenth Century,' Mr. G. on lib a- 

ries, 261 
Nonconformists : and the Universities 

36-38 ; Lord Shaftesbury and, 213- 

215 ; Mr. G. and, 267-268 
Northbrook, Lord, 254 
Northcote, Sir S., 66, 163, 178, 179, 219 



O'Coxxell, Daniel, 31, 35 

' Ode to the Shade of Wat Tyler,' 13- 14 

Oratory, Mr. G s. early style of, 38 39 

Orsini, Felice, 137 

O Sullivan, W. H., Mr., 249 

Oxford, Mr. G. at, 16-25, 37-3S ; Lord 
Houghton at, 17; Mr. G.'s rooms at, 
17 ; Keble at, 36 ; Ire'and Scholarship 
at, 38 ; the Bidding Prayer at, 269 

— University, 83-86, 114, 116, 13J, 143 
144-146, 163-172, 174 

Oxnam, Mr. N., 20 



Pall Mall Gazette and Disraeli 
Prime Minister, 196-197 

Palmer, Sir R. (Lord Selborne), 166' 
209 

Palmerston, Lord, and Oxford, 38 ; 
Greek Government, 101-103, 107-10S 
no, 112-114, 124, 126, 132, 134-13, \ 
144, 146, 149 155-159. l62 > 164, 167 
death of, 175-177 ; and ' tenant right 
in Ulster, 212 

Pamphlet on ' Recent Commer ial Legi j 
la t ion,' 82 ; on ' The Vatican De^rv-e, • 
240-241 



288 



MR. GLADSTONE 



TAP 

Paper Duty Bill, 148-152 
Parliamentary oath, 83 

— Reform. See ' Keform Bills 
Parnell,Mr., 248 

Peel, Sir Robert, 22 ; and Catholic 
claims 23 ; 31, 58 ; administration of, 
42-47;' and the 18 4 1 Budget, 63-64; 
and education in Ireland, 69-70 ; and 
the Irish famine, 81-82 ; retirement of, 
82, 85 ; death of, 108-109 

— General, 193 
Phillimore, Sir R., 16 
Phillpotts, Bishop, 89 
Phoenix Park murders, 249 

Pio Nono (see also ' Pope'), 187-188 
Pitt, Mr., 38 ; and taxation, 119 
Poem by Mr. G. in ' Eton Miscellany, 

13-14 
Ponsonby, Sir H., 254 
Poor in England, the, 29, 31 . 

Pope, the, and a Roman Hierarchy in 

England, in; Mr. G. and, 187-188 
Potter, Mr. Rupert, vi. 
Praed, Mr. W. M., 61 
Protection, 109 
Protestants, 111 
Prussia and Austria, 187 ; anl France, 

Pseudonym, Mr. G.'s in ' The Eton Mis- 
cellany,' 12 . . 
Public Schools, Royal Commission on, 

15 2 

Public speaking, early style of, 39, 67 
Public Worship Regulation Bill, 233-237 
Pusey, Dr., 19, 171, 277 



'Quarterly Review,' article on Di j 
vorce, 134 ; on the law of Conspiracy 
137 ; on Tennyson, 278 j 

of July, 1867, Lord Salisbury s 

article, 192 



Ragman Roll, i 

' Recent Commercial Legislation, 82 

Red Club, the, 29 

Reform Bill, 21, 28, 39-41 ; Peel and, 
45, 46, T46 ; in i860, 155-156 5 
Lord Russell and, 177-178 ; of 1866, 
180-185 ; Disraeli's, 189-194, 201, 202 

Reform of the Irish Church, 34-36 

Reid, Mr. Stuart, v. 

Religious effects produced on Mr. G. 
at Oxford, 22-23 

Reporters, gallery for, in the House of 
Commons, 47 

Richard, Mr. H., 219 

Richmond, Duke of, 41 

Ripon, Lord, 41, 67 

4 Ritual and Ritualism,' article in Con- 
temporary Review,' 237, 239 

Ritualists, the, 237 



SPE 

Robertson. Andrew, 2 

Roebuck, Mr., 102-103, 126 

Rogers, Frederic (Lord Blachford), 8, 
20 

Rome, Sir R. Peel at, 42-45 ; Mr. G.'s 
visit to, 59-60, 187-188 ; the Court of, 
87 ; Church of, at Jerusalem, 123-124 

Routh, Dr., 23, 85 

Royal Academy of 1872, 223-224 

— Agricultural Society's Council, 80 

— Commission of Public Schools, 152 

— grants, 259. 274 
Ruskin, Mr., 263 

Russell, Lord J., and the Irish Church, 
47 ; and the Budget 1841, 63 ; and the 
repeal of the Corn Laws, 82, 83 ; and 
the Pope, 111-113, 114, 124-12?, 132, 
142, 143, 146, 151, 155, 177, 183, 185, 
187, 216, 217, 230 ; retirement of, 

195 
Russia : and Greece, 102 ; and the 

Crimean War, 124, 127 
Rutland, Duke of, 64, 152 



St. Andrews, Bishop of, 16 
Salisbury, Lord, 151, 192-193, 204, 210, 
251-252, 258 

— Bishop of, 20, 216 
Salt Hill Club, at Eton, 9 

Sandon, Lord. See ' Lord Harrowby ' 

Scott's ' Woodstock,' 8 

Scott, SirW., Mr. G. and, 272 

Seaforth vicarage, 5 

Sebastopol, 125 

Secret Voting, B'll to Establish, 217 

Seeley's (Prof.) ' Ecce Homo,' 177 

Selborne, Lord, 209, 254 

Selwyn, Geo. A. (Bishop of Lichfield), 

8, 12, 14 
Senior, Mr. Nassau, 128-129 
Shaftesbury, Lord, 61, 64, 159, 175, 

193-191, 196, 202, 213, 229, 251, 253, 

254 
Sherbrooke, Lord, 17, 181 
Shurey's, Mrs., at Eton, 6 
Skinner, bishop, 113 
Slavery, abolition of, 21, 29, 31, 37 
Slaves, in West Indies, 3^-33, 48 ; in 

America, 153 
Smith, G. Barnett, ' Life of the Right 

Hon. W. E. Gladstone,' vi 

— Dr. Samuel, 16 

— Sydney, and Ireland, 33 

— Mr. W. H., 254 

Sodor and Man, Bishop of, 16 

Somerset, Duke of, 179 

South Lancashire, 172, 174, 175, 202, 
203 

Speeches : at the Eton Society, 10-12 ; 
on Reform Bill at the Oxford Union, 
20-21, 182, 183 ; maiden, in House 
of Commons, 32-33 ; on the Irish 
Church Bill, 36 ; on the Universities 
Admission Bili, 37-38 ; at Newark, 



INDEX 



289 



SPE 

46, 64 ; on the West Indian planters, 
48 ; on China, 62 ; at Liverpool, 67 ; 
Civi's Romanics sum, 103-108 ; eulogy 
on Sir Robert Peel, 109 ; on Mr. 
Disraeli's budget, 115; first budget, 
117-120, on Crimean War, 127; re 
the Arrow, 133; on the Divorce 
Bill, 133-134 ; on the work of Univer- 
sities, 147 ; on the Paper Duty Bill, 
150 ; on the Constitution, 151-152 ; on 
the death of Prince Consort, at Man- 
chester, 153 ; on America, at New- 
castle, 154 ; on the Franchise Bill, 
160-162 ; on the Irish Church, 163, 
197-201, 206-207 ; on Ancient Greece, 
164 ; at Manchester Free Trade Hall, 
172-173 ; at Liverpool Amphitheatre, 
173-174 ; on Reform Bill, 182-184 ; 
first, as Prime Minister, 206, 209 ; the 
'Alabama,' 219-220; on Home Rule, 
220-222 ; ' Free Thought in Religion,' 
224 ; on Public Worship Regulation 
Bill, 233-234, 236 ; re Royal grants, 
259; at Memorial Hall, 267; on Affirma- 
tion Bill, 268-269 ; at Eton, March, 
1891, 277 

Spencer, Lord, 41, 249 

Spirits, duty on, 117 

Stanley, Dean, 216, 222 

Stanley, Hon. E. See ' Lord Derby' 

— Lord. See ' Lord Derby ' 

— Sir John, 16 

State in its relations with the Church, 

the, 53-59, 65-66 
Succession duty, 121 
Sugar duties, 63 
Sumner, Archbishop, 130-131 



Tait, Archbishop, 17, 222, 226, 233 

Tamworth, Sir R. Peel and, 45-46 

Tariff, the revised, 67, 71 

' Tenant right ' in Ulster, 212 

Tennyson, Mr. F., 8 

— Lord, 262, 278 

Theological controversy, Mr. G. and, 

237, 267 
The Royal Supremacy &c. letter to 

Dr. Blomfield, 89-91 
The Tiiiies, 59 ; and the Budget of i860, 

148 ; and retirement of Mr. G., 238-239 

* Three Acres and a Cow,' 252 
Tiverton, Lord Palmerston at, 175 
Toryism of Oxford, the, 22 

Tory Reform Bill, 189-194 

* Tracts for the Times,' 53 
Trade Unions, 40 

Treatise on 'Church Principles, &c.,' 

61-62 
Treaty of Balta Liman (1849), 124; of 

Washington, 219 
Trees, Mr. G. and, 263 



WOR 

Trench, Archbishop, and Bishop Wilber- 
force, 203, 205, 206 

Trevelyan, Sir George, and the anniver- 
sary of Waterloo, 185-186 ; and Crimes 
Act, 249, 255 

Truro, Lord Chancellor, 28 

' Tufts ' at Oxford, 17 

Turkey and the Crimean War, 124, 127 ; 
and Bulgaria, 242-244 

Turner, Dr. (Bishop of Calcutta), 15 

Ulster, ' tenant right ' in, 212 

Union at Oxford, the, 20-21, 30, 182, 

183 
United States and the 'Alabama,' 218- 

220 
Universities Admission Bill, 36-38 

Valedictory address at Oxford, 167- 
168 

Van Espen, the canonist, 235 

' Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on 
Civil Allegiance,' 240-241 

Veysie, Rev. D., 16 

Victoria, Queen, 49, 64 ; and Lord J. Rus- 
sell, 114, 143, 177 ; and Lord Derby, 
115-116; and Mr. G.'s first Budget, 
120 ; speech from Throne, 1859, 141 ; 
and Lord Palmerston, 143, 146 ; and 
Parliament of 1866, 179, 186-187 ; and 
Mr. Disraeli, 196, 201 ; and Mr. G., 
203, 251, 254, 257 ; and Epping Forest, 
249 

Villiers, Mr. Charles, 79 



Walewski, Count, 113 

Walpole, Spencer, 8, 158 

War Budget in 1853, 124-125 

Waterloo, Sir G. Trevelyan and the 
anniversary of, 185-186 

Wellington, Duke of, 20, 26, 40-42 ; 
death of, 116 

Westbury, Lord Chancellor, 133 

Whalley, Mr., 220 

Whiteside, Chief Justice, 163 

Wilberforce, Bishop, 49-52, 68-69, 75, 
89, 122, 131, 138, 139-140, 156-157. 
159, 165, 168-171, 179, 185, 191 ; and 
Dr. Trench, 195, 204-206 ; and Irish 
Church, 199, 203 ; and Mr. Gladstone, 
204-206, 215, 217, 222, 223 ; death of, 
226, 281 

Wilde, Mr. Serjeant, 28-30, 46 

William IV., 41-42 ; death of, 49 

Wilmslow, Mr. G., 15 

Wiseman, Cardinal, 59 

Wood, Sir C. A., 16 

Wordsworth, Bishop Chas., 16, 21, 24, 
48, 84-85, 113 

Working-classes, 160-161 



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SIR ROBERT PEEL 

BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY, M.P. 

With Photogravure Portrait. Crown 8vo. cloth, 3s. 6d. 

' Mr. McCarthy relates clearly and well the main incidents of Peel's political 
life, and deals fairly with the great controversies which still rage about his conduct 
in regard to the Roman Catholic Relief Bill and the Repeal of the Corn Laws. 

Saturday Review. 

1 Mr. McCarthy's chapters on Catholic Emancipation are written with admirable 
impartiality, and he does ample justice to that high-minded administrator, Lord 
Anglesey. ' — Athen^um. 

' Mr. McCarthy has written a bright and sympathetic sketch of Sir Robert Peel. 

The Speaker. 
' Shows insight into the exigencies of a Parliamentary situation and the tactics of 
the Leader of the House of Commons.' — Spectator. 
'Workmanlike and even picturesque.' — Globe. 
'Essentially bright and sensible.' — Manchester Guardian. 



THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY, K.G. 

BY H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L. 

With Photogravure Portrait. SECOND EDITION. Crown 8vo. cloth, 3 s. 6d. 

' It is a good thing when a book is written as a gentleman should write it ; a good 
thing when it is written as a scholar should write it ; a good thing when it is written 
as a man full of practical and theoretical knowledge of his subject should write it. 
But it is a very rare thing indeed to find, as we find here, all three merits in combina- 
tion. The lesult is not only a remarkable criticism on a man ; it is, in part of it at 
least, the best and . . . the most impartial sketch of recent political history that we 
have recently seen.' — Saturday Review. 

'A really valuable piece of contemporary history.' — National Observer. 

' Unquestionably the liveliest, not to say the most superciliously cynical and 
wickedly witty of the series.' — Daily Chronicle. 



London : SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & 'COMPANY, Limited, 

St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 



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